Teaming up to take on traffic.
Friday, transportation leaders from 5 counties across Tampa Bay met to work together to get regional road projects done. It turns out Tampa Bay is missing out on a lot of state funding for the projects you rely on, all because our county leaders have been reluctant to join forces.
Is there anything worse than traffic?
Palm Harbor resident and driver Jaye Martinez doesn't think so! “I hate traffic with all my heart and soul," she exclaimed.
Every year, you waste 27 hours of your life sitting in it and it seems construction projects meant to help you are always getting delayed. Tampa Bay is only getting more crowded.
Whit Blanton of Forward Pinellas explained, “We’re a hot market and we are adding hundreds of thousands of people to tampa bay in the next 5-10 years and that’s only going to overburden our transportation network if we don’t get our act together regionally.”
Pinellas county has 1.2 billion dollars in unfunded road projects and in Hillsborough County, it is even worse. They need 4 billion dollars to get all their road projects done.
Turns out Tampa bay is missing out on a lot of state funding for the projects you rely on because Tampa Bay counties have been competing for money, while other counties in Florida are teaming up.
Margie Weber hopes county leaders make amends, because our patience can only go so far. "Let's team up and get it done. It’s a good idea. Lets team up and get it done!”
The new regional transit group will also look into options like adding high speed rail and express buses in Tampa bay.
