The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) board of directors recently adopted an update to its 2009 Regional Transportation Master Plan.
Required to update the plan every two years, the Master Plan focuses on creating a regional transit network, ensuring that all modes of surface transportation are included while seamlessly moving people and goods across Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
"The citizens of the region benefit by understanding where we're going in terms of a long-term vision, recognizing the importance of this and that the pieces of the plan get implemented incrementally over a long period of time," says Bob Clifford, executive director of TBARTA. "It's important that we have a vision and understand where we're headed from a transportation perspective."
The updated plan provides an outlook through 2050 and incorporates all modes of surface transportation, including roads, the freight network, airports, bus rapid transit and seaports, with information coming from existing plans from the various entities in the Tampa Bay region -- counties, cities, the land portion of the Tampa Port Authority and Tampa International Airport.
"This time around, we thought it was important and appropriate to include all modes of transit in order for it to be a true Transportation Master Plan," says Clifford. "It's also important to regularly update because things change -- as we've seen this year with High Speed Rail no longer happening and the failure of a referendum here in Hillsborough County. Things change and technologies may change. Who knows what transportation technology might be within the coming decades."
To view a draft of the vision of the Master Plan, visit TBARTA's website.
Writer: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain
Source: Bob Clifford, TBARTA
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