(It's Fun To Gripe At The) P!S!T!A!

In the 16 years that I've worked at the Times, the one local agency for which I have heard nearly universal and unanimous criticism is the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, or PSTA.  The general theme boils down to this: You'll Ride Our Buses When And Where We Tell You To, Buddy, And No, We Won't Lift A Finger To Cooperate With Anybody Else. (Here's one of my columns, in which local-government head-butting actually managed to get people hurt.)

So this morning's news that executive director Roger Sweeney is retiring seems to me to present as just much opportunity as it does upheaval. Sweeney easily survived an attempt by dissident PSTA members to fire him recently, but there was more dissatisfaction than met the eye, and there had been some renewed back-door feeling-out lately.

If we don't abolish PSTA outright, or merge it into a regional mass-transit system, then the agency needs to get a whole new attitude about regional rapid transit and how PSTA should interact with everybody else. I am eager to hear from anybody who has thoughts on this...

Comments

[Jim Johnson]

I cant recall where I read it, but some learned person observed that, once an institutional culture is established, it's impossible to reform the culture, and it must be destroyed. Department of Children & Families is an excellent example of this theory. DCF reform happens with every new administration, and things never change. The DCF culture will devour Bob Butterworth.

The flip-side of the theory is: A few institutions and agencies start out great and just get better with time. It all depends on what sort of culture you have in place from the beginning. The National Park Service is such an agency. They cant lose for winning.

PTSA likely needs to be dismantled and sold for scrap-metal. Start over with people from public transport agencies that are superior performers.

[John B]

If you compare PSTA to any other local transit provider in the Bay area PSTA is the shining star. Granted, given the competition it doesn't take much to shine - but PSTA offers far superior service to a greater portion of the poulation in its service area than any other agency in this region.

What makes tranist a nightmare in Pinellas is two things - first, there is no "core". People don't live in the burbs and work downtown. Everyone in Pinellas needs to go everywhere in Pinellas and that creates coverage problems. So PSTA puts the buses where they can do the most good. Second problem is this county has 20+ individual municipalities with their own mayors, city councils, and administrators - and each has their own idea about what transit should be and who sould pay for it. Not an environment real conducive to success or change. And I didn't even mention the County government!

To blame PSTA for not thinking regionally is a mistake. PSTA offers two connecting routes to Tampa - HARTline offers one, and it was a fight to get them to do it. Why doesn't PSTA go to TPA Airport? Because HARTline has an exclusive service agreement with the airport and refuses to allow PSTA in. Regional success will come from regional effort, and until I see HARTline decision makers at the table (and not Hillsborough County politicians) I don't see any reason for PSTA or anyone else to waste their time.

As for the trolley issue. PSTA offered a number of alternatives to the city, but the city only wanted one thing - they wanted the trollys to go into John's Pass. So there was headbutting for sure - but it was 40/60 PSTA/Madeira Beach.

PSTA is an organization with an impossible mission and limited funds. It is also a place full of dedicated professionals who believe in what they do, and do the best they can with what they got. I was proud to work with them for a few years, several years ago.

Incidentally, they also have a citizen advisory committee - so all are welcome to jump out of the cheap seats and actually get involved.

[Howard Troxler]

An insightful and useful comment, it seems to me. I confess that much of my overall impression has been shaped through the outlooks of the county and many municipal governments that you mention.

[Karl Nurse]

Howard,
As a Board member of PSTA, I am often frustrated by the pace of the efforts to improve the service. However, this will be the 4th year in a row when PSTA has added evening, weekend, and frequency to routes. This year's improvements to 5 or 6 routes come in June. Ridership is up about 25% in
three years.

It is not complicated as to what needs
to be done to provide good public transit for much of the county. Service needs to be no more than every
15 minutes, some routes need an express
type or BRT service, technology needs to be used to make riding easier (mapquest type service starts next week) and service needs to be added in
areas that are without convenient service. Most importantly, transit needs have to be on the agenda when
building roads and/or redeveloping
areas.

The problem is simple. This costs money! Transit funding is always last
on the list at the federal, state, county and city level. Only because of
rising property values and grants by way of Bill Young was PSTA able to make
the progress in the last three years.
For example, none of the 2.2 Billion that will be raised by the Penny for
Pinellas will go to transit. Almost
half will go to roads.

A new director will provide an opportunity to start afresh. It is
clear that we can not build enough roads to build our way out of gridlock. Public transportation is the only option.

[William Steele]

Howard, sometimes you're right, but many times you're wrong. And this is one time where you are very wrong!

Your article on John's Pass was not based upon fact, and the Times chose not to print my response -- never let facts get in the way of a good story!

Fact is, Roger Sweeney vastly expanded
the transit fleet and developed a nucleus of 5 routes that now carry 5 millon passengers each year -- and still
growing! As these corridors develop, premium Bus Rapid Transit Service can be justified, to further expand and improve transit services.

Mr. Sweeney will push hard to get the PSTA Board to commit to a cost-effective BRT alternative that could be justified to taxpayers. As you know, it is the job of the PSTA Board to use the information provided by staff to move forward with implementation.

Additonal facts: Roger Sweeney moved the program forward with state-of-the art technology,a Trolley route connecting all the Beach communities, and intra-county bus routes that
facilitate travel north-south and east-west.

There are more passenger shelters,
transfer centers, solar bus stop lighting, and a new terminal at Central Plaza. A new adminsitrtion and operations facility provides room for more buses and continued expansion. Express rotues now operate with commuter coaches that provide added comfort and laptop connections.

Over the course of 3 years, 90 buses will be placed in service and
28 of these are expansion buses. Just this year, additional evening service
was implemented, and imporved peak-period service frequency is programmed for June of this year.

Truth is, no one has done more for
public transit in this region than Roger Sweeney. Hope that his replacement can accomplish one-half of what Roger has done in the past 16 years.

Maybe it is time to put down the sword and report based upon facts.

Wiliam P. Steele
Director of Planning
PSTA

[Howard Troxler]

I am happy to see all the statistics, but unhappy at the gentleman's casual libel at the opening, which he does not back up. The column in question ran on July 25, 2003. I encourage you to click on the link above. Not only is it more than even-handed toward PSTA, but it is based on the PSTA's own words and correspondence. I eagerly await the evidence for which statements in the column are untrue, or in the alternative, an apology and retraction.

[Bob Lasher]

Mr. Troxler,

If you think PSTA has a theme of "You'll Ride Our Buses When And Where We Tell You To, Buddy, And No, We Won't Lift A Finger To Cooperate With Anybody Else,” then I can tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about. You obviously know nothing about transit or PSTA operations. You have no idea how hard the staff at PSTA works to accommodate the transit demands of the Bay Area. Seriously, how much time have you spent learning about PSTA operations? Any at all? Yet you purport yourself as if you’re an expert on transit and PSTA.

“Abolish PSTA outright” huh? Perhaps you would like to inform the people who took 11.4 million rides on our system last year that their transportation is being scrapped.

Even when the Bay Area gets a regional transit agency, do you honestly believe that the current routes and service areas of PSTA and HART will no longer be needed? It amazes me how the press has concocted this image that a regional transit authority will magically solve all of our current transit problems.

PSTA has transit analysts working every, single day to maximize our routes and the impact they will have for area riders. For instance the reason that PSTA is not going to Tampa International Airport is because the ridership projections for that route are so low.

Think about it: Unless people live along the bus route that runs directly to the airport, how likely are they to take the bus given that they’ll have to either drive to a stop or make transfers? Based on ridership projections, the funds we could use for an airport route would be better spent on increasing service elsewhere in the county, which gives the taxpayers the most service for their dollars. (That BTW has always been the goal of Roger Sweeney and his staff).

Roger Sweeney never wavered in his goal to provide the best bus service possible for area residents. He makes his decisions based on what’s best for our riders, tax payers and the future of transit in the Bay Area.

Speaking for those who work every day to improve transit for area residents and who’ve worked closely with Roger Sweeney, I can assure you that his retirement will be ONLY to the detriment of regional transit. Plus, based on the growth and improvement PSTA experienced under his leadership, the chances of finding a replacement who will do a better job are exceedingly slim.

We march backward into the future-- M. McLuan. I compliment the improvements to the basic bus system, but he's been no visionary(and at times has been an outright impediment)when it comes to alternate transit; most notably light rail. I hope that under a new director the PSTA will be less of the fiefdom that many feel it became during Roger's tenure. I assume he'll go into consulting, and will probably do quite well at it. He is largely a product of his times and his reign has been laudable within that context.

To Mr. Steele, The B.R.T. you are referring to is not a system that is truly competitive with light rail, in terms of changing ridership patterns. Such a system would require substantial right of way acquistions(to build dedicated lanes) that would inflate it's price into the same ballpark as light rail, if not more in terms of combining both it's capital, and higher operations & maintenance costs. It is rather a system that can be described as B.R.T. "Light", or perhaps as an enhanced express bus, that certainly will make the ride for people who are transit dependent more convenient(which I am all for), and possibly motivate more tourists to use it as well. If the attempt here is to force residents who won't ride buses into them by consciously worsening the current traffic situation by means of existing lane dedication and or signal preemption, you have at best a small,short term solution to a large long term problem. Meanwhile, the costs of a dedicated system(light rail, or full blown B.R.T.) will spiral ever upward. I also find the current debate about which bus design to use as a way to change the great ridership paradigm somewhat amusing, and totally missing the larger point; akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ongoing objection to pursuing a program that can be a fifty year or more solution is it's cost, as it should be, but when compared to the "building our way out of it" alternative, via new road construction (in a built out county), it can be positioned as comparatively inexpensive. I have also found the current set of policymakers' willingness to assume such a program is too expensive without first obtaining the concurrence of the citizenry(whom they work for, lest we forget) via referendum most distressing & problematic. I believe many of them are afraid they will be surprised, and that the people will actually vote to provide the local funding source to match the neccessary state and federal dollars. Since it's creation several years ago the Pinellas Mobility Initiative(P.M.I.) Steering Committee has done a considerable amount of research and developed a substantial base of information on this subject, settling on a mode(monorail), and proprosed routes for such a system. The Committee also developed construction cost estimates, ridership expectations. When the Committee surveyed public opinion to determine the base support benchmarks on going forward with such a transit system the result meaningfully exceeded expectations in terms of favorability. This project, other than a guideway from downtown Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, has been laid to the side due in large part to the departure from the Committee of several key supporters at virtually the same time approximately one year ago. At the minimum, the P.M.I. Committee developed a viable intra-county component for a regional inter-county type system. The Committee still exists, but they seem sadly focused on the development of more B.R.T. "Light" projects and not much else.

To Mr. Steele, The B.R.T. you are referring to is not a system that is truly competitive with light rail, in terms of changing ridership patterns. Such a system would require substantial right of way acquistions(to build dedicated lanes) that would inflate it's price into the same ballpark as light rail, if not more in terms of combining both it's capital, and higher operations & maintenance costs. It is rather a system that can be described as B.R.T. "Light", or perhaps as an enhanced express bus, that certainly will make the ride for people who are transit dependent more convenient(which I am all for), and possibly motivate more tourists to use it as well. If the attempt here is to force residents who won't ride buses into them by consciously worsening the current traffic situation by means of existing lane dedication and or signal preemption, you have at best a small,short term solution to a large long term problem. Meanwhile, the costs of a dedicated system(light rail, or full blown B.R.T.) will spiral ever upward. I also find the current debate about which bus design to use as a way to change the great ridership paradigm somewhat amusing, and totally missing the larger point; akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ongoing objection to pursuing a program that can be a fifty year or more solution is it's cost, as it should be, but when compared to the "building our way out of it" alternative, via new road construction (in a built out county), it can be positioned as comparatively inexpensive. I have also found the current set of policymakers' willingness to assume such a program is too expensive without first obtaining the concurrence of the citizenry(whom they work for, lest we forget) via referendum most distressing & problematic. I believe many of them are afraid they will be surprised, and that the people will actually vote to provide the local funding source to match the neccessary state and federal dollars. Since it's creation several years ago the Pinellas Mobility Initiative(P.M.I.) Steering Committee has done a considerable amount of research and developed a substantial base of information on this subject, settling on a mode(monorail), and proprosed routes for such a system. The Committee also developed construction cost estimates, ridership expectations. When the Committee surveyed public opinion to determine the base support benchmarks on going forward with such a transit system the result meaningfully exceeded expectations in terms of favorability. This project, other than a guideway from downtown Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, has been laid to the side due in large part to the departure from the Committee of several key supporters at virtually the same time approximately one year ago. At the minimum, the P.M.I. Committee developed a viable intra-county component for a regional inter-county type system. The Committee still exists, but they seem sadly focused on the development of more B.R.T. "Light" projects and not much else.

[Bob Lasher]

For those posting that Roger Sweeney has been an impediment to light rail, how about some proof? And I mean REAL proof, not just the rhetoric and propaganda dished out by those who feel slighted because they didn’t get their way. Roger’s accomplishments at PSTA are phenomenal by any transit standards. Go back and see what Roger inherited at PSTA and where he’s taken it. You’ll see that no other city or county entity can match PSTA’s improvement in that time period, not even St. Petersburg.

As for BRT: When the Mayor of Los Angeles recently christened the city's new BRT line he said, "Trains and subways are what we build for future generations, this is for our generation." With the clamor for new commuting options in the Bay Area BRT is the best fit for many reasons, though rail should also be in the plans for our future generations.

And to the person who actually compared the costs of BRT to rail, you're WAY off base. BRT implementation is a small fraction of what rail would be.

Incidentally, PSTA’s consultant on BRT, Mr. Alan Danaher of Kittleson & Assoc. is, arguably, the nation’s top expert on BRT and is the man the government turned to when it wanted someone to write the Federal Manual for BRT implementation.

Oh, and if you're going to post and/or trash someone here, at lest have the guts to identify yourself.

Mr. Lasher, you are referring to BRT "light", and yes that is less costly than either light rail, guideway, full blown BRT, or any combination of these. BRT "light" is at best a short term amelioration of the transit problem. The others are looked as long term solutions.

[McLuhan]

P.S. to Mr. Lasher, if you read the posts you're apparently referring to carefully, you'll see that no one was specifically trashed. Even the criticism of Mr Sweeney regarding his place in the long range alternate mass transit debate that appeared in an earlier post on this thread were within the context of praising his overall tenure. So, what's your problem?

[Alex]

In an ideal world, I would absolutely love it if I could drive to, say, the main USF campus in Tampa (a short drive from where I live). Hop on a train (NOT a God-forsaken bus) and have that train (with maybe one stop or two) take me all the way to Clearwater Beach.

That's what a Regional Transport Authority would be able to do.

[Bob Lasher]

Mr. McLuan I’m referring to this about Roger Sweeney: “but he's been no visionary (and at times has been an outright impediment) when it comes to alternate transit; most notably light rail. I hope that under a new director the PSTA will be less of the fiefdom that many feel it became during Roger's tenure.”

It’s as wrong as wrong gets and written by someone who knows absolutely nothing about what Roger has done and tried to do at PSTA or how things operate at PSTA. Roger has presided over tremendous improvements in this system-always with an eye toward the future. If it’s impediments you’re looking for ask the legislature why it created a 15 member board for PSTA.

It’s the PSTA board that has to make all major decisions, not Roger. Just how easy do you think it is for Roger to keep 15 extremely busy people abreast of the operations at PSTA as well as keeping them up to date on the latest developments in the transit industry? This group of 15 makes the decisions at PSTA and just how easy and expedient do you think it is to get them, or any other group of 15, to readily agree on things? A little perspective: There are six County Commissioners in Pinellas, which has 4000 employees, yet our legislature has mandated that PSTA needs 15 Board Members for an organization of 611.

[McLuhan]

Mr Lasher, I applaud your loyalty & committment to Mr Sweeney, but I stand by my prior comments. Your statements of support largely revolve around improvements to PSTA organizationally, and to the basic level of bus service, which I mostly agree with, and will again give credit where it's due. As I understand it, the move to 15 Board Members was an effort to provide representation that more truly reflects the population distribution in Pinellas County without taking away seats that are earmarked for areas that might not merit a seat if membership on the Board were purely based on population distribution. The SEVEN County Commissioners are charged with meeting the needs of one million Pinellas County citizens not just 4000 employees. In parallel, the same dynamic applies to PSTA for bus riders. You ought not to forget you are a public servant, and your duty to the public you are employed to serve stands above all others. No hard feelings.