Tampa, Fl
From: Eye On Tampa Bay
Posted by: Sharon Calvert
Despite the $2 million and growing advertising campaign for
All For Transportation and the 1 cent, 14% sales tax increase proposed as a
county charter amendment in Hillsborough County, the plan will increase
congestion and not relieve it. The evidence is hidden in plain sight in the
details of the ballot amendment, which they conveniently avoid in their
advocacy.
Let's start with how AFT
Section 11.07 General Purpose Portion of their plan, which is where the
road initiatives are specified.
Section 11.07. Uses of General Purpose Portion. For any
Agency that the Clerk reasonably estimates will receive five percent (5%) or
more of the Surtax Proceeds in a given calendar year, such Agency’s share of
the General Purpose Portion shall be expended by the Agencies for the planning,
development, construction, operation, and maintenance of roads, bridges,
sidewalks, intersections, and public transportation (which, for purposes of
this Section, may include any technological innovations such as autonomous
vehicles and related infrastructure), to the extent permitted by F.S. §
212.055(1), and include expenditures in the following categories:
Cited directly from the plan, the funds in the General
Purpose portion of the plan, which includes general road and safety, among the
aforementioned categories mentioned in 11.07, totals nearly $8.5 billion, or
54% of the total taxes raised over 30 years.
Did you see what they did? The funding for the General
Purpose category can also be used for "public transportation", or
transit. Conversely, AFT explicitly requires the 45% dedicated to transit later
in plan to only be used for transit and nothing else.
(1) Maintenance and Vulnerability Reduction. At least
twenty percent (20%) of the General Purpose Portion shall be expended on
projects that: (i) improve, repair and maintain existing streets, roads, and
bridges, including fixing potholes, or (ii) reduce congestion and
transportation vulnerabilities.
Cited directly from the plan, this category is estimated
at $1.7 billion, or 10.8% of the nearly
$16 billion in the plan over the 30 year lifetime of the tax. This category is
already largely funded with existing gas taxes, although we have our complaints
with Hillsborough County's effectiveness with these monies. Which begs the
question, what happens to these existing funds? A topic for another day.
(2) Congestion Reduction. At least twenty-six (26%) of the
General Purpose Portion shall be expended to relieve rush hour bottlenecks and
improve the flow of traffic on existing roads and streets and through
intersections. Expenditures in the category described in this Section 11.07(2)
may include projects that improve intersection capacity through the use of
technology, the construction of new intersections, the redevelopment of
existing intersections, and may include related infrastructure such as
roundabouts and turn lanes. Projects described in the foregoing sentence do not
constitute New Automobile Lane Capacity, as defined in Section 11.07(8) below.
Cited directly form the plan, this category should improve
intersections, at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion, or 14% of the total plan.
However, note they restrict increased automobile lane capacity.
(3) Transportation Safety Improvements. At least
twenty-seven (27%) of the General Purpose Portion shall be expended to promote
transportation safety improvements on existing streets, roads and bridges.
Cited directly from the plan, "Safety" will cost
nearly $2.3 billion or over 14.5% over 30 years.
(4) Transportation Network Improvements. At least twelve
(12%) of the General Purpose Portion shall be expended on bicycle or pedestrian
infrastructure and related improvements that make walking and biking safer, to
the extent the foregoing is or is planned to become a part of the
transportation network within any Agency’s jurisdiction, and to the extent
permitted by F.S. § 212.055(1).
Cited directly from the plan, "Transportation
Network", or a fancy word for bike paths and sidewalks, and more safety,
is estimated to cost $1 billion, about 6.5%, over 30 years.
(5) Remaining Funds. Any remaining portions of the General
Purpose Portion shall be expended on any project to improve transportation in
the applicable Agency’s jurisdiction to the extent permitted by F.S §
212.055(1) and this Article.
Cited directly from the plan, the "Remaining" category, is
estimated to cost over $1.2 billion, or 8.1% over 30 years. Note this category
can be used for "any project to improve transportation", which would
include any of the other categories above, as well as the transit categories
(we will take those up in another post). The "Remaining" funds can
only be used on those "permitted by F.S § 212.055(1) AND this
Article". The Article means the entirety of the charter amendment that
intentionally excludes new roads. The $16 Billion tax hike does not and cannot
fund any new road capacity - for 30 years.
(8) Limits on New Automobile Lane Capacity. Agencies are
prohibited from expending any funds from the categories mandated by Section
11.07(1), (2) and (3) above on New Automobile Lane Capacity. For purposes of
this Section 11.07(8), “New Automobile Lane Capacity” means projects that
consist of (i) adding additional lanes for automobile traffic to existing roads
or streets that are not related to intersection capacity improvement, or (ii)
constructing new roads or streets.
Cited directly from the plan, sections 11.07 (1 - 3), or
about $6.2 billion over 30 years, are restricted from actually increasing
capacity. Recall section 11.07(2) Congestion Reduction, excludes new lane
capacity, the best way reduce congestion.
It is very likely the General Purpose 11.07(5) Remaining
Funds of $1.2 billion will be used for transit projects, as they are highly
prone to cost overruns.
We agree with AFT that an estimated 700,000 new residents
expected to move into Hillsborough County over the next thirty years -- with
their cars. How many new cars will be on
the road? Well, I'm glad you asked.
If we use the average household size of 2.64, Tampa's
average of 1.49 cars per household, there will be an estimated 395,075 more
cars on the road, or about 50% more than are now in Hillsborough due to the
700,000 new residents.
The Tampa transit advocates who authored the plan clearly
gave a lot of thought on exactly what they want, which included explicitly
ignoring new road capacity. This is a recipe for disastrous gridlock for
Hillsborough's future.
Yet AFT must spend a minimum of $1 billion on bike paths
and sidewalks, but could spend nothing on new roads! Got that?!
For reference, here are just some of the failing (Level of
Service "F") roads across Hillsborough County, form the latest MPO
Level of Service Report that will not be fixed under this plan:
Bloomingdale Ave
Bearss Ave
Big Bend Road
Erlich Road
Falkenburg Road
Fletcher Ave
Gunn Highway
Lithia Pinecrest Road
Lumsden Road
Memorial Highway
Sheldon Road
Van Dyke Road
But it really gets worse.
AFT regularly mentions their plan is based on the
Hillsborough County MPO Long Range Transportation Plan.
AFT has also advertised "Fixing 450 miles of dangerous
streets".
That came directly from the MPO LRTP, page 69:
Projects in Level 2 1⁄2 include over 450 miles of “complete
streets” treatment that will cover all priority corridors and 300 miles of new
sidewalks.
Complete streets may include more sidewalks, more bike
lanes, traffic calming, dedicated transit right of way, greenways, etc.
Typically, the idea of complete streets are sold for safety, environmental and
urban planning benefits. They are also the costliest, most expensive streets to
build.
Complete Streets are not complete in increasing traffic
throughput. In fact, they are based on creating more traffic congestion by
slowing down and constraining traffic. Road diets, or actually reducing road
capacity, is the term the MPO uses. Don't believe me? Check out the
"illustrative" road diets from the MPO.
Complete streets and "road diets"
Where does the space for more and wider sidewalks, transit,
trees, bike paths come from? By reducing and removing lanes available for the
most popular mode of mobility, your car.
Do you see what they did? They are playing the
"safety" card without recognizing the rest of the impacts of their
plans. We are all about safety. In fact, we would advocate for even more safety
with increased separation for bikes and pedestrians, with separate bike and
pedestrian trails away from major roads. There are few good outcomes involving
automobiles and bikes or pedestrians regardless who is at fault. Yet there is
no evidence there will be a major increase in bikes and pedestrians over the 30
years in this plan. But they are committed to spend billions regardless.
Net Mobility Fee = ((Cost to add road capacity) - (Credit
non-impact fee revenue)) x Demand
The "non-impact fee revenue" includes sales tax
revenue. Therefore, the AFT sales tax will reduce mobility fees by 30% or more.
The developers will be paying less for the impact of new development and you
will be paying more!
The AFT plan, hiding clearly in its language, will only
increase congestion faster. They do this by over allocating funds to transit,
explicitly not funding increased road capacity, forcing "road diets"
on 450 miles of complete streets, all while another 700,000 residents arrive
with their 395,000 cars, while making you pay more. And wait more.
Posted by EyeOn TampaBay at 6:00 AM
This post is contributed by EYE ON TAMPA BAY. The views expressed
in this post are the blog publisher's and do not necessarily reflect those of the
publisher of Bay Post Internet.
Cross Posted with permission from: Eye On Tampa Bay
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