The Transportation Puzzle

It's no secret that traffic on US 41 and I-75 continues to worsen as Southwest Florida's population expands. Rush hour congestion is bad, becoming intolerable in season. Stacked traffic creates highway hazards, slows travel time and seeds road rage. A ripple effect occurs as commuters and trucks shift onto alternate routes, spreading the problem.

Florida's population increased by roughly 35 percent between 1980 and 1998. Locally, Lee County's population increased by an estimated 48 percent, while Collier County's population increased by 57 percent. In addition, Southwest Florida International Airport continues to bring in all-time record numbers of seasonal residents and tourists -- more than 4 million a year -- ranking it among the nation's fastest growing airports.

With Lee County at only 25 percent of build out and Collier County at 50 percent, the prospect of moving burgeoning numbers of people from place to place remains an unsolved puzzle.

Can we make it work?

The Regional Jigsaw

"We know we can't just keep on building roads," says Lee County Transportation Director Dave Loveland. "There's no paving our way out of the problem. All the easy solutions are done, and we're running out of options."

Edward Kant, transportation services director with the Collier County Department of Transportation, agrees. "We are at a crossroads," he says. "As our network builds out, we must look for alternative solutions."

These two planners and a host of others are engaged in the formidable social/economic/political balancing act of trying to piece together Southwest Florida's transportation network. The picture changes every year as priority road improvements, additions and expansions bump into each other, fighting for precedence in a tight budget.

The past winter season brought the threat of traffic congestion into what many believed to be small, quiet communities in Southwest Florida. A strong tourism industry, an even stronger national economy and low gas prices brought motorists out in record numbers onto local roadways. In addition, a record-high labor force traveled to and from work, using the expressway as a commuter road to avoid construction on US 41.

"This past winter season, that I-75 got to be the last straw," reflects Wayne Daltry, executive director for the six-county Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, the parent organization for the Lee Metropolitan Planning Organization. Like many residents, Daltry recalls the accidents, fires and traffic slow-downs that often took place on the expressway.

Gridlock and Roadblocks

Why are motorists feeling the crunch on Southwest Florida's local roadways? One of the major problems is connectivity, says Daltry. "We have a recognized need here for a total of 22 to 24 north-south through lanes for traffic by the year 2002," he says. "We now have 12. Pick any north-south road, and it doesn't connect."

Placing new through lanes can be an exercise in frustration -- if not a virtual impossibility -- when considering the fact that many promising north-south and east-west routes dead-end into pre-permitted gated communities. Others threaten disruption to long established neighborhoods.

Arterial roadways in Lee and Collier Counties can be three to five miles apart. The standard interval for metropolitan traffic networks is one mile between arterials, with connectors every quarter- to half-mile.

"In some areas of Collier County, we have one-third of what we need to maintain legal levels of service," says Kant.

FDOT Distrct Director Norman Feder agrees the region's roads do not fall within the grid pattern of neatly planned cities. "You make the best of what you have here today," he says, adding that connecting roads is only one part of a bigger transportation riddle. "There's no simple, single answer to it," he says.

The environment, for another, has become a large concern. Every new roadway, after all, is a potential environmental threat, restricting wetland water flow patterns and opening the door for development in areas that may have otherwise remained rural. Southwest Florida's activists are alert to each new project and are usually in excellent attendance at each regulatory meeting.

There is also the problem created by the modern automobile, giving motorists better fuel efficiency and speed capabilities. "In the olden days, you could tell congestion based on the number of cars on the roads," says Daltry, " ... Now a days, the reality is cars are peppier and you end up on the expressway bumper to bumper."

Conventional ways of looking at rush hour have also changed. For Southwest Florida, it's no longer a predictable 9-to-5 cycle. "We've moved from the nine-hour city to the twelve-hour city to the fifteen-hour city," Daltry says. "What's happening is rush hour is getting longer and longer."

The Biggest Issue Is Money

By far the largest problem, though, is paying for roadway construction and expansion to keep up with the area's surging population growth. Combined state and county shortfalls in transportation project budgets for Lee, Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota counties are $2.2 billion between now and 2020. In-hand resources account for less than half of the required $4.1 billion. The state is running a current deficit of $13 million on US 41 alone.

Lee County budgets $20 to 30 million a year for primary new construction, including maintenance. Collier budgets $30 to 35 million a year. Lee projects a $173 million shortfall over the next 20 years. Collier projects a $80 to 100 million shortfall.

The bulk of county funds comes from two sources, new construction impact fees and county gasoline taxes. Lee and Collier counties are two of four Florida counties that have maxed out the 12 cents per gallon ceiling for county gasoline taxes at the pump. Lee has also thrown out the idea of adding an additional sales tax to help pay for some transportation expenses.

In addition, construction impact fees are high in Southwest Florida because of the area's high growth. About half of the fees is generated by residential housing starts. The other half is in commercial building.

"Ideally, the amount of impact fees per development would be the amount needed to construct the pavement needed to accommodate the additional volume of trips generated," says Gavin Jones, transportation planning manager with the Collier County MPO. "But they've been knocked down to minimize the chance of legal challenges."

However, while impact fees have remained stable in recent years, land, administrative and construction costs have continued to rise. Add in bike lanes, sidewalks and streetscape maintenance, and you have a problem.

Daltry contends, though, that impact fees were never meant to do more than make up for gaps in property taxes between the time new residents move in and the time they begin paying property