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There's A Place In America With Worse Roads Than Tampa

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

My wife and I recently motored to Virginia, where she officiated at a friend's wedding.

I enjoy travel, especially a road trip with Rebekah, but I missed Tampa. I found a place in the United States with worse roads.

The wedding was in Norfolk, the rehearsal dinner took place in Newport News, the reception and hotel were in Hampton, and then we visited Rebekah's sister in Virginia Beach. You can't go anywhere without crossing maybe 13 bridges and going through at least one tunnel. You also can't go anywhere without becoming snarled in a major traffic jam.

Note to the Florida Department of Transportation: Keep working on Tampa's roads, but skip any plan that involves funneling seven lanes of highway into a two-lane tunnel. It's one more reason a light-rail network makes sense: one vehicle on one track, computerized traffic flow and no elbowing for limited space because everyone wants to go through the same tunnel at the same time.

If anything good is going to come out of overpriced gasoline and the economic downturn, it's the emerging grass-roots re-evaluation regarding how we get around. A car may be optional in order to experience life, but living in the Tampa area requires a working automobile when it comes to participation in functional liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

The tide of public opinion is shifting toward community investment in alternatives that facilitate equal access beyond the limits of physical handicaps, open roads or personal means.

I see a chink in the "You can pry my car keys from my cold, dead hand" mentality that equates the American spirit with internal combustion on four wheels. Now is a great time to make a commitment to Tampa's egalitarian future.

Maybe a Virginia columnist will visit Tampa one day and feel compelled to write about "the kind of community where traffic isn't a real problem because it's so easy to get around with or without a car. Virginia could benefit from the kind of vision that propelled Tampa in the early 21st century. Tampa is my kind of town."

Columnist Derek Maul can be reached at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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