Transportation revolution

We asked Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, a state leader on transportation, his advice about light rail.

“I think the future is too hazy to make those kind of investments right now. My advice to cities is when you’re driving in a fog, you want to slow down,” he said.

“The simple truth is if you started a light rail project today, it would take 15 or 20 years to finish it. It will cost you $150 million per-mile to build it. Then you’re going to spend millions and millions in operating costs to subsidize it. And you don’t solve the fundamental challenge of the system, which is what we call the first-mile, lastmile problem.

“The last thing I want is for a city to make a huge investment, only to be leapfrogged by new technology that makes it completely obsolete, yet voters will still be on the hook. Plus, the challenge with a light-rail system is, it’s likely to take less than 1 percent of trips off the roads. So it’s a billion-dollar cost for a 1 percent solution. And it’s looking back. It’s 19th century technology when we have a 21st century problem. We need to be using 21st century solutions.”

We asked Poole, whose studies of South Florida’s mobility options have been peerreviewed, his thoughts on the tax plan.

“I live in Plantation near the intersection of Broward and University, and I’m thinking, my God, if they take away a lane in each direction for light rail or bus-only, it’s going to be a nightmare for my wife to get to Publix or Home Depot.

“As a transportation professional, if the thing we’re premising this on is either light rail or bus-only lanes on major arterials, I would oppose it. Not happily, because I think we really do need a transit supplement to the roadways. But we’d be asking for real trouble by ruining the arterials, which are the back-up to the expresswayfreeway system.”