Jacksonville is not the exclusive domain of "Mass Transit Neanderthals!"

[Ocklawaha]

Sometimes the good news is someone else's bad news. Take Gainesville for example, where a energized and forward thinking regional transit agency is rapidly pursuing BRT and STREETCAR, while the mayor toasts the effort with the Kool Aid he's been slogging down.

Thursday, January 30, 2014
Gainesville, Fla., weighs streetcar line
Written by  Douglas John Bowen

 
Gainesville, Fla., weighs streetcar line
Consultants are working with a Streetcar Project Advisory Committee in Gainesville, Fla., to prepare a proposal for a line linking the city's downtown with the University of Florida.

The study is funded with $100,000 authorized last year by the Gainesville City Commission, while the advisory committee, including city and county planners and local business leaders, have mapped proposals for a 2.2-mile starter route, with an estimated cost of $128 million.

Other Florida cities, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale on Florida's Gold Coast, are working on streetcar or light rail transit projects, but Gainesville, though the largest city in north central Florida, would be in many ways an outlier, with a modest city population of roughly 126,000.

Tampa, Fla.-based Tindale-Oliver & Associates, along with Parsons Brinckerhoff, are the consultants involved, also including a Bus Rapid Transit study in the mix, according to local media.

Gainesville Mayor Ed Braddy reportedly opposes any streetcar effort, citing the "extraordinary cost" of the mode, and its alleged potential to siphon ridership for existing bus routes.

SOURCE: http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/light-rail/next-streetcar-possibility-gainesville-fla.html

Note to self: Why do these geniuses think Streetcars 'steal passengers' from the local bus system, when both are operated by the same agency? Streetcars can replace buses on the heaviest routes allowing for better bus service with tighter headways and modest expansion without a marked increase in bus vehicles. Has anyone in Gainesville calculated the savings value of a vehicle that can double or triple capacity without adding a driver? Has the mayor ever heard of TOD and what streetcar brings to that party? CINCINNATI ANYONE?

http://www.youtube.com/v/2w9OjL9rHbs?hl=en_US
The interview with the 'DING-DING' Lady is a hoot!

[thelakelander]

I wouldn't worry about siphoning off bus ridership because the routes would most likely be modified anyway to complement the new transit investment.  However, $128 million for 2.2 miles definitely raises a red flag.  Nearly $60 million/mile for a streetcar in Gainesville?  That's insane.  I wonder what other costly bells and whistles are being tossed in to come to such a whopper of a price tag?

[tufsu1]

The politics in Gainesville right now says the streetcar (or any fixed system including BRT) is all all but dead.

[Ocklawaha]

http://www.youtube.com/v/E-nLY5IvhAs?version=3&hl=en_US
Fort Collins MUNI

Two thoughts:

* We could have had this up and running in 1985-90, and now our current crop of neanderthal's are at work to make certain it doesn't happen for another 30 years!  CALL YOUR COUNCILMAN, TPO, and JTA and don't let them tell you no!

* Beautiful landscaped median 'could have been' on Water Street... Try this with a bus!

[Adam12]

Tampa is not any better off:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-leadership-lacking-on-transit-in-hillsborough/2186324

City council member Mike Suarez, who is also serving as the current chair of HART, has offered up excuse after excuse for why HART cannot run an expanded transit system (beyond buses - he says it lacks the authority). Now he is saying that with more than two years until a potential referendum in 2016, there is no time left to do anything. "The ship has sailed on that" he said. But city and county leaders have been talking about this for at least a year. Disgraceful.