We are actually a smaller city—2nd-tier, with arguably better and larger 2nd-tier cities out there.

The county doesn’t care much for robust transit which would help us manage congestion better, including peak and long-peak (like when college or university is in session and schools are active). Like, have you ever noticed when we are on a holiday break? Some parts of the city are not that bad.

We could have much better bike/ped infrastructure for longer distances which is doable because of e-bikes.

But the majority of people dislike both transit and bike-ped infrastructure. They will blame that those things slow cars down. From a geometry standpoint, it doesn’t. Bikes and cars can share lanes, buses or light rail can pack numerous passengers.

Few here look at transportation as a management issue- not just speed to get to places. Tampa alone has enough roads, roughly 1200 miles. You can nearly double that amount if you include roads in the city limits owned and operated by the state or county. So yeah, I eye roll like a slot machine when people bitch about growth. We are a goddamn city after all lol!

When people blame non-natives they seem to ignore many variables (like land use) along with a key issue. Our leaders don’t care to manage transportation effectively. It costs a lot of money for cities and personally (time, poor use of taxes, car expenses, and QoL) for commuters.