News & Events: Florida's Transportation Strategic Goals
The main goals of Transit 2020, Florida's strategic plan for public transportation throughout the state, are as follows:
- Goal 1: Implement a transit system that improves and expands travel choices for Floridians and visitors.
- Objective 1: Achieve the quantity and quality of local transit (core) service sufficient to increase transit ridership in Florida at twice the average rate of population growth through 2020.
- Objective 2: Develop and expand regional transportation service in corridors where the number of inter-county trips exceeds established thresholds.
- Objective 3: Expand the transit market to include a greater percentage of riders who have a choice between transit and auto for their trips.
- Objective 4: Provide an effective and efficient mix of transit modes and transfer facilities to achieve seamless intermodal travel.
- Goal 2: Sustain and expand investment in public transportation from all existing and potential public and private funding sources.
- Objective 1: Achieve adequate and stable funding levels to meet transit needs for service preservation, operating and capital expansion, and technological innovation.
- Objective 2: Utilize flexible funding opportunities for transit.
- Objective 3: Use creative and innovative funding strategies.
- Goal 3: Develop, promote and encourage transit supportive policies, institutional arrangements and practices.
- Objective 1: Promote land use planning and urban design practices that facilitate transit service and access.
- Objective 2: Foster institutional arrangements, practices and cultures that establish clearly defined roles, promote staff teamwork, encourage partnership with transit providers, and support a results-oriented management approach.
- Objective 3: Develop a multi-modal transportation planning process that addresses the wide range of policy issues involved in making sound, long-range transportation investment decisions, including technological innovation and the environmental and economic benefits of transit.
- Objective 4: Establish broad-based public and political support of transit as a mobility choice and enhancement to Floridians' quality of life.
According to 2002 Bureau of Transportation Statistics data, the means of transportation for those Florida residents commuting to work were as follows:
- Car, truck, or van-drove alone: 79.2%
- Car, truck, or van-carpooled: 11.8%
- Public transportation (including taxi): 2.1%
- Walked: 1.9%
- Other means: 1.8%
Data sources: Public Transportation Partnership for Tomorrow, a nonprofit coalition of hundreds of businesses and transit organizations, including the American Public Transportation Association, providing national education and outreach (www.publictransportation.org). Bay County Transit Development Plan, 2003Ð2007, prepared by the Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida. Transit 2020: A Strategic Plan for Public Transportation, Florida Department of Transportation. 2002 Florida Transportation Profile, Bureau of Transportation Statistics.