Public To Weigh Mass Transit Options

If you had your choice, how would you like to travel to downtown Tampa or St. Petersburg - by light rail or bus? Perhaps a combination of both?

County residents will get the chance to pick their preferred method of mass transit during a July 31 workshop sponsored by the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA).

The workshop is part of TBARTA's effort to develop a transportation master plan for the seven-county West Central Florida region, including Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.

TBARTA recently completed phase one of the master plan development, with public-provided comments on where transit service should be located to serve regional transportation needs.

During the second phase, TBARTA will hold a series of workshops throughout the region and ask people what type of transit mode would be best for each of the transportation corridors. Some of the transit mode options that will be evaluated are bus rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, managed lanes and waterborne transit.

The local workshop is from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 31, at the Holiday Inn Express, 3528 U.S. 19 in Spring Hill.

As the master planning process moves into phase three, additional workshops will be held for public comment. These workshops are currently planned for fall 2008.

Anyone interested in participating in an online community workshop can visit www.tbarta.com and click on the "Meetings" tab to locate the link for the online meetings.