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Transit plan going nowhere

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published March 20, 2007

How does focusing on roads, putting off regional solutions and forgoing serious talk of hiking taxes mark a change in Hillsborough County's failure to address transportation? The county's transportation task force may be new, but we have heard its tune before: Build new roads with existing funds and borrowing capacity, get projects going by the next election and deal with the region later. That backward approach guarantees congestion will continue to outpace the money the fix it.

Commissioner Ken Hagan, who chairs the task force, set the right terms at the outset. His group represents a cross-section of views. The county's professional staff is involved. Hagan also insisted the planning produce tangible results. To that extent, this process must be taken seriously. The mistake was dividing the discussion into two phases. The one underway now would identify funding for 20 years, with a six-year plan for immediate improvements. A second-phase discussion, later this year, would address longer-term transportation problems throughout Tampa Bay.

But how can the county make the right local transit decisions in the absence of a larger plan to move about the region's 3-million people? Task force members voice the need to think regionally. They also list mass transit and growth management as important tools for controlling sprawl and expanding the base of financial support for transportation projects.

The question is whether putting local and regional needs on a separate timetable dooms both. How can a county making $20-million-a-mile road improvements the next six years find the money and political will to wean itself from the parochial demand for asphalt? Hagan has shown a willingness to step up recently and meet the challenges Hillsborough faces from an evolving economy and growth. He is not there yet on transportation, and without a regional plan, his effort has as little worth as the failures before it.

[Last modified March 19, 2007, 23:28:51]