FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

#BorisBus - A public policy must-read over the holidays: "Boris's Bus (A Political Journey)" by The Guardian's London blogger Dave Hill, @DaveHill, who's been chronicling energetic London Mayor Boris Johnson's controversial effort to place his stamp on London's future transportation scene




Here's the series in reverse-chron order:
Boris's Bus (A Political Journey) Boris Johnson's wish to create a modern successor 
to London's legendary Routemaster buses has been a signature policy of his mayoralty. 
The Guardian's London blogger Dave Hill has been following the unfolding saga of its creation

Dave Hill's main blog on London is here:  
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/davehillblog







It goes without saying that we could really use this willingness to shake things up in government in Florida, especially South Florida, to say nothing of having double-decker buses along certain main streets.

Then again, ever since it started less than 10 years ago, the Broward County Transit express bus that runs on traffic-clogged US-1, back-and-forth from Aventura Mall to downtown Fort Lauderdale, the Buzz #1, after leaving the Aventura Mall, next to its food court near Macy's, does NOT stop at a single bus SHELTER in Aventura, Hallandale Beach or Hollywood. Really.
Waiting bus passengers get to wait and wait in the rain, sun, wind...
Just like bus passengers at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport waiting for public transportation, whether visitors who have just landed and eager to get to their hotel, or airline, vendor or Homeland Security employees simply looking to get home, who also have to wait for it at a place with NO shelter, NO benches to sit on and with NO posted bus schedules present. 
It could hardly be less well thought-out and half-assed.

And the people manning the information desk inside the airport consistently CAN'T tell you where the one-and-only bus stop at the airport is, as I discovered first-hand there this summer when I did some investigating and snooping around.
The signs for it are seemingly an afterthought. 
The whole enterprise is a #RealityCheck for #BestPractices.

I've got a photo-filled blog post on that embarrassing transportation situation, esp. at the airport, coming sometime in January, and will publicly question how -yet again- Broward County citizens/taxpayers are clearly being mis-served by Broward's bureaucrats on something that is NOT that complicated, and yet is clearly being botched.

Yes, Broward, the same County that has an Advisory Board for every matter and problem under the sun, real and imagined, but which does NOT have an Advisory Board for the Airport, one of the principal economic engines we have here.
That is something that clearly needs to change in the near-future and with meaningful citizen representation, too. 

To make that change happen, in the new year I plan on speaking directly to the people and interest groups who make the decisions in this County. 
Then we'll see who wants to do what's best for the public and who wants to keep doing what clearly ISN'T working. 
#Resolutions
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Managed lanes: Broward MPO & FHA up to patronizing mischief on Thursday that'll cost you $$$ to drive on primary roads -the ones YOU already paid for

My answer to the Broward MPO's outlandish proposal to consider charging me and other Broward taxpayers and visitors to use roads that taxpayers have already paid for, is to call their bluff and to instruct them to make the first experimental pay roads in the area, Andrews Avenue and Las Olas Blvd. in downtown Fort Lauderdale, roads with businesses where elected officials, lobbyists and mouthpieces congregate, even while tourists stay away in droves.

To quote Matt Damon as Will in Goodwill Hunting, "How do you like those apples?

February 10th Broward MPO agenda at:
http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/tpi01507.pdf

***TIME CERTAIN – 11:00AM – MPO MANAGED LANES REGIONAL BRIEFING***
I guess they put that in red on the website so that members of South Florida's news media, esp. those with a penchant for showing-up late, will know what's going down and when.
(Unlike the Hallandale Beach City Commission meetings where time certain items rarely come up on time and the meetings just go on forever and ever...)

Later that same day, the Broward MPO and the Federal Highway Administration are hosting a workshop on expanding toll lanes to Broward County’s arterial roads.
You know, the roads that you use most?
Since space is limited, of course, you need to RSVP to attend the workshop, which is scheduled to go from 1:30-5 p.m. at the Broward MPO Board Room, Trade Centre South, 100 West Cypress Creek Road, Suite 850, Fort Lauderdale.
This is right next to the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station.
Christopher Ryan of Broward MPO is the contact person: (954) 876-0036 or ryanc@browardmpo.org

 Look at this video produced for the Broward MPO's on the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan. http://www.youtube.com/user/jacobsproductions1


Their homepage is at http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/index.html

Do you see any 2009 PUBLIC meetings scheduled in Hollywood or Hallandale Beach?No, there weren't ANY in all of southeast Broward County.

Check for yourself on the website above and you'll see that I'm right: Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Pompano Beach.
Satisfied?

Really, no meetings in southeast Broward County, nothing east of I-95 and south of the airport, that's your idea of community outreach?

Richard Blattner, a Hollywood City Commissioner, is the current Vice Chair of the Broward MPO. You might want to ask him how it came to be that IF he were doing such a great bang-up job, there not only wasn't a meeting in Hollywood, one of the five biggest cities in the county, but not a single one in SE Broward.

That's NOT exactly my idea of vision, leadership or a solid performance on the MPO.
Seems more like he's sleepwalking.
Blattner's city commission info: Telephone: (954) 921-3321
Email: rblattner@hollywoodfl.org
http://www.hollywoodfl.org/city_commission/district4.htm

And while you're talking to Blattner, whose transportation expertise and prowess seems to me to be more media-generated than genuine, you might want to ask him whether or not he will actually be around when the City of Hollywood finally has covered bus shelters for riders at Young Circle, instead of slabs, since it's the busiest stop in all of SE Broward.
Looking north on East Young Circle/U.S.-1 in Hollywood, FL, just east of the ArtsPark, at the bus stop at the strip mall owned by Equity One, featuring Publix and Walgreen's. February 5, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

 The ArtsPark at Young Circle was finished four years ago, so what's the big hold-up on getting the appropriate sized shelters that bring in revenue thru advertising and keep mass transit riders out of the rain and sunshine?
That's a reasonable question he and his colleagues should've been asked and forced to answer in public a long time ago!
Looking west on Tyler Street in Hollywood, FL, just northeast of the ArtsPark, at the bus stop north of the strip mall owned by Equity One, featuring Publix and Walgreen's. That's The Radius condo in middle of photo, which has a Starbucks on ground floor.
February 5, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Actually, I did ask that question aloud at the County's transportation meeting a few years ago at the Convention Center, the meeting where Broward Commissioner Lois Wexler refererred to me as "the young man in the back" when I got off a litany of self-evident but largely-ignored transportation problems in Broward, not all of which were the responsibility of BCT.
(Another current transportation problem in SE Broward that is being completely ignored is coming to the blog within the next week to ten days, complete with embarrassing photos.)

This, famously, was the same transportation summit I've written about previously on the blog where Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper came up to me after and started making excuses for why well over 90% of all the bus shelters in Hallandale Beach on the city's three main streets had lights that been out at night for YEARS, as I had told everyone assembled.

Her first response was how much she hated Clear Channel, the advertising company that the city had a contract with that generated revenue for them.
Fix the problem!

It took YEARS, and there are now dozens of them on main roads like U.S.-1 that have been out for 6-9 months, in front of the Steak & Shake restaurant opposite Gulfstream Park, for instance, near the cityline with Aventura.

Where's the public oversight Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew are responsible for?
Missing in action!

Well, they've been MIA for so long they are presumed brain dead.

As I said, Blattner is the Vice Chair, but some woman I've never heard of named Rae Carole Armstrong, the mayor of Plantation, is the MPO Chair.
I don't know her from Eve, but if she has any common sense, she will wise-up in the coming days and realize that this absurd anti-democratic, top-down policy proposal going forward will be a political noose around any and all elected officials on the MPO who vote to approve this.
I will personally work to ensure that.

And Armstrong, personally, better be prepared to answer some tough questions from citizens about costs and why if this group of her's is SO professional, a very big if, why there are barely more than a handful of people in ALL of South Florida who even know about these two Thursday meetings.

A case could be made that the Broward MPO is the single most dysfunctional public policy group in all of South Florida, given their paltry results and public awareness versus their salary costs.

For instance, look at how many people have seen the county's MPO's video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps8U2RuM98c

Really, 156 views in almost 20 months, two of them, me?
That's pathetic and epic failure.
Elsewhere, that's the sort of piss-poor response rate that gets people fired from their jobs.
Nice going geniuses.

I'd love to know how much it costs taxpayers to put this together, since it really gives you some insight into how totally screwed-up transportation policy is here!
And look at the pathetic In the News section of the 2035 homepage, where you'd expect to find accounts of news stories.
http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/inthenews.html

The most recent thing there is from January 23rd, 2009.
That's right, the most recent thing is from over TWO YEARS ago, which means that none of the so-called public meetings ever so much as made a dent in the Miami Herald or Sun-Sentinel news coverage, or local TV stations, because you know that they would have it there if it had seen the light of day in print.
Smells like failure to me.

The MPO has a so-called blog on their web page http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/comments.html Here's what it says:


Post your comments on the Broward MPO 2035 LRTP Blog
The discussion is open to the public and people are able to respond to others comments.
Some topics of discussion include overall Broward County Transportation Issues and innovative transportation solutions.
*Comments posted here are visible to the public.
Guess what happens when you go there to look at the public's questions and comments?There Are NO Questions or Comments.
What does THAT tell you about what sort of job they're doing?

Here's the list of MPO members along with contact information. http://publicforum.broward2035lrtp.com/mpo/boardmembers.htm and here's the staffers info, http://publicforum.broward2035lrtp.com/mpo/mpostaff.htm

You might want to consider adding MPO head honcho Greg Stuart as a cc in any of your queries. For more on Greg Stuart and what's been going on with him in charge, see this post of mine from May of 2010, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/brittany-wallman-is-on-top-of-broward.html and this Broward Bulldog piece from September of 2010, one of a series on very curious doings at the Broward MPO,
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2010/09/whistleblower-probes-expose-bad-blood-behind-county-mpo-split/
I will be at the meetings Thursday and you can pretty much guess what I'm going to be talking about.
By the way -surprise!- there has not been a single mention in the Herald or Sun-Sentinel about Thursday's two meetings.
Or anything on local TV newscasts.

I just double-checked.
As IF I really needed to!
-----
See also: http://browardnetonline.com/2011/02/fha-to-discu-expre-lane-expansion-on-all-roads-warning/
Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)