What Happened?
Tampa officials have devised a plan to encourage collaboration between transit and highway authorities to increase revenue streams and infrastructure improvements, rather than maintaining the standard competition between the two entities. The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority and Hillsborough Area Regional Transit are working together to self-fund public transit bus operations with the implementation of highway bus toll lanes.
The Goal
The Atlantic Cities reported the bus toll lanes concept would create a corridor for public transit buses that allows them to bypass standard highway toll lane lines for more efficient trips on the highway. Drivers interested in accelerated their highway travels could then purchase access to the bus toll lanes for a higher fee, which would generate revenue, reduce highway traffic congestion and improve speeds for other travelers.
Federal grants would be utilized to pay for the development of the bus toll lane corridor, while revenue from cars opting to gain access to the bus toll lanes will take care of operating and maintenance costs of the public transit options. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database, one third of service costs for public bus systems are typically covered by fares alone, while the remaining expenses are paid for by taxpayer dollars. With the bus toll lanes, however, car owners can pay for access to the corridors and taxpayer dollars can be allocated elsewhere in transit projects.
Tampa Plan
Before implementing the bus toll lanes, Tampa authorities conducted a feasibility study analyzing potential congestion savings as well as implementation costs. The study estimates significant reduction in congestion costs despite a 187 percent increase in traffic once the additional buses were addicted to current traffic models.
The study looked at adopting public transit buses that ran from every 10 minutes to possibly every minute. Even as frequency increased, Tampa authorities could sell access to 90 percent of the bus toll lane corridors to generate revenue. Furthermore, the study found the bus toll lane system could pay for 100 percent of the transit buses operations and maintenance no matter the length of corridors developed. If a 65-mile route was implemented, an estimated $1.5 billion could be generated over a 30-year period after just $323 million was invested in initial funding while the other two model options could produce $1 billion or $2.4 billion in net revenue.
According to the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, the bus toll lane project will be made possible through a public-private partnership that offers competitive options for drivers and a sustainable business model for the local government to maintain.
The feasibility study also identified other benefits for the community the bus toll lanes could create. All transit riders could enjoy a lower transit fare due to strong revenue streams, dropping the cost from $2.50 per trip to $1.00 per trip. In addition, the new bus toll lanes would optimize mixed-use land development to reduce traffic congestion while improving public transit resources.
Transit Solutions
Gov1 has reported on creative initiatives at the local level to fund transit upgrades and improve highway activity for more efficient use.