My Op-Ed in Support of High Speed Rail Between Orlando / Tampa Ran in Orlando Sentinel This Morning

[ddeclue]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-myword-rail-020310-20100202,0,5773864.story

I just spent six weeks commuting between east Orlando and St. Petersburg daily for a short-term-contract engineering job. It cost me $28 per day in gas and took three to four hours of driving time every day, depending on traffic.

I know a number of engineers and programmers who, likewise, have regularly traveled from Melbourne or Daytona Beach, where job prospects are even worse, to work here in Orlando.

Because our local elected officials have largely failed to attract decently paying high-technology jobs to the Orlando area in the past five years, and have focused, instead, on boondoggles like building a new basketball arena and on letting the real-estate developers run wild, I've been forced to travel to a lot of out-of-area jobs.

With official unemployment in Central Florida exceeding 11.5 percent, my next job will likely be in Jacksonville, a 138-mile one-way commute.

I have a nice new car, and I love it, but I'd be happy to take the train if it were available, fast and reasonably priced so that I could have more free time, spend less money on the commute and save wear on the car.

...more at link.

[Roland99]

1. Good job! I'm more interested in SunRail, though. But the high-speed rail could really help

There's the new medical complex going in south of Orlando that could bring in thousands of higher-paying jobs. Of course, the prospect of losing 7,000 jobs at NASA as the space programs are dismantled hurts.

Orlando needs to diversify its image past theme parks and basketball.

And, heck, hire a dozen civil engineers and some computer programmers and task them with designing a timed traffic light system for all of Orlando and I bet things like SunRail wouldn't even be needed!!! NEVER have I seen such horrendous traffic light patterns (and the lack of any cloverleaf or diamond interchanges on I-4 or the toll roads only makes matters worse).

[ddeclue]

3. If Burnham Institute brings in more than a few hundred jobs, I'll be shocked.

[thunder rising]

4. You know if you optimize lights in one direction they are not optimal in the other?

[Roland99]

That's not exactly true

Back in Louisville, they managed to program the lights on a few of the major arteries. 4-lane roads with tons of traffic lights, no parallel access lanes, major intersections, etc. Traffic flows were greatly improved. One road took, I kid you not, 20-30 min. to travel about 3-4 miles. It was madness. Now it's just a couple of minutes. And side roads have not been adversely affected. In fact, the opposite is true.

If traffic on the arteries flows more freely, then less traffic is backed up on the side roads waiting to get onto the arteries.


Tried driving east/west on 436 or 434 or Colonial here in Orlando? It's as enjoyable as listening to The Twit drone on for an hour with endless "You betcha"s.

[thunder rising]

6. So the idea is to optimize in the direction YOU are travelling.

[Roland99]

7. oy vey

:eyes:

[Mojorabbit]

8. My driveway

which is really long eventually empties out on to 436. It is a nightmare. I remember when it used to be named Lake Barton Rd.

[blm]

2. K&R for an excellent effort.

.

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. High speed Melbourne-Orlando. That would be sweet!

[quaker bill]

9. I have the good fortune

of working fairly close to home in Altamonte Springs and have only an 8 mile commute. However, when gas was $4 bucks a gallon, I was wishing for Sunrail, as one of the stations would be a short bike ride from the house, and I would happily take it.

[Geek_Girl]

10. I wish they put a high speed train in other parts of the country

I'd love to be able to work in Atlanta from south east TN. I'm a software engineer and the opportunities for work are much better in Atlanta and North Georgia.