Advertisement

Editorial: A smart plan to revise bus routes in St. Petersburg

 
The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority’s plan to eliminate a decades old transfer hub at St. Petersburg’s Williams Park would be a long overdue improvement that would benefit bus riders and open the shady block for wider civic use.
The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority’s plan to eliminate a decades old transfer hub at St. Petersburg’s Williams Park would be a long overdue improvement that would benefit bus riders and open the shady block for wider civic use.
Published June 5, 2015

The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority's plan to eliminate a decades-old transfer hub at St. Petersburg's Williams Park would be an overdue improvement that would benefit bus riders and open the shady block for wider civic use. Twenty-one bus routes currently converge on the park and bring exhaust fumes, noise and congestion, creating a wall of vehicles that helps foster an isolated environment for drug dealing and minor crimes. A decentralized grid system recently proposed by PSTA CEO Brad Miller makes sense as St. Petersburg studies how to move people more efficiently to and around the popular mix of museums, concert venues, restaurants, high-rise residences and waterfront activities.

For the last several years, county transit planning focused primarily on the Greenlight Pinellas sales tax referendum, which voters soundly rejected in November. Now individual elements of that plan are moving forward, including St. Petersburg's long-standing desire to eliminate the unappealing barrier of buses around Williams Park. Miller and city officials are gearing up to replace the hub-and-spoke approach, which dates to the 1950s, with a grid system tentatively bounded by First and Sixth Streets, Fourth Avenue N and Third Avenue S. Routes with a high number of transfer clients would have stops near each other. Riders could also transfer at the PSTA's Grand Central station at 32nd Street.

A grid concept would also support downtown St. Petersburg's transformation from a place for bus riders to pass through, transfer slip in hand, to an active urban center with multiple bus destinations of its own. The city needs wider downtown bus coverage — complemented by looper trolleys and bike-share stations — to curb an overreliance on cars that threatens to choke downtown with its own success. The Downtown Waterfront Master Plan calls for moving parking spots away from the water's edge from North Shore Park to Bayboro Harbor. The Pier Park project — or any other replacement for the municipal pier — needs a public transportation connection to Beach Drive and points west.

Fortunately, city officials are amassing tools to address the transportation puzzle in a comprehensive fashion. In May, the City Council approved a $150,000 parking study to assess the demand for parking garages and possible locations. A federal grant will cover the $200,000 cost of designing the proposed grid. An in-town taxing district, where money can only flow to downtown projects, has set aside $14 million for upgrading public transportation options, which could help finance the extra buses that a well-functioning grid and circulation system would require. The in-town taxing district also could underwrite a small, inland transfer hub if the grid concept proves unwieldy.

Spend your days with Hayes

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

Some downtown bus routes will continue to stop at Williams Park because of its central location. And buses or no, the park's location relatively near the St. Petersburg Free Clinic and St. Vincent de Paul food kitchen will continue to attract the homeless and idle, who have every right to be downtown. Eliminating the de facto bus station, though, will encourage artists, office workers, students and exercisers to pass through Williams Park more frequently, reprising its legacy as the city's communal core.

Rerouting buses in the city center is no substitute for a light rail system that would link downtown St. Petersburg with other parts of the county and the region. But along with new transit projects in Clearwater, Dunedin and other parts of the county, the proposed downtown St. Petersburg grid system would be a welcome improvement to Pinellas County's bus service.