summer of 2031<\/a>, at a price tag of $2.5 billion.<\/p>\nThe 14-mile stretch between Polk and Osceola counties on the way to Orlando averages up to 160,000 vehicles per day. The project includes two express lanes in each direction, the latest solution to reduce routine backups.<\/p>\n
The announcement came with the familiar pledge of \u201ccongestion relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
But relief for how long? In a growing state, adding lanes tends to induce more demand. When I-4 expanded from two to three lanes, the new capacity temporarily reduced travel times. More vehicles soon erased those gains.<\/p>\n
So here we are, paying $2.5 billion to improve a relatively short stretch of one major road, an amount that could cover Tampa\u2019s annual budget, with enough left to award every Hillsborough sheriff\u2019s deputy a $315,000 bonus.<\/p>\n
Keep the $2.5 billion in mind when the next elected official pooh-poohs the cost of alternative transit options like rail or rapid buses. You could also remind them that the feds once offered $2.4 billion ($3.6 billion in today\u2019s dollars) to build high-speed rail along the I-4 corridor from Orlando to Tampa. But in 2011, then-Gov. Rick Scott scuttled the deal, calling the proposed rail line a \u201cboondoggle.\u201d<\/p>\n
That decision isn\u2019t aging well: Brightline\u2019s high-speed train now runs from Miami to Orlando, while the state pours billions more into expanding the interstate between Tampa and Orlando. The rail line would not have paid for itself, but neither does the interstate. The $2.5 billion project is just the latest example.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the demand the expanded interstate aims to address is only growing.<\/p>\n
A lot more driving<\/p>\n
Americans are driving more than ever. The latest information from the federal highway agency showed that the total miles driven in February was the highest in the nation\u2019s history, based on a 12-month rolling average. A growing population means more drivers, which leads to more miles driven, at least in a country that hasn\u2019t embraced alternatives as readily as many other countries.<\/p>\n
The same numbers aren\u2019t out yet for Florida, but the latest state data show Floridians drove 115 million more miles daily than a decade earlier. Commute times have risen in the state, as has the share of drivers who spend at least an hour commuting to work.<\/p>\n
All seven of our local counties \u2014 Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota \u2014 have longer average commute times than a decade ago. Only Pasco and Pinellas have a lower share of drivers spending at least an hour commuting to work.<\/p>\n
All of the road building and improvements \u2014 much of it badly needed \u2014 hasn\u2019t kept the numbers from getting worse.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s fueling all those extra miles? Surprisingly, it\u2019s partly the people who stopped going to the office.<\/p>\n
Not commuting; driving more<\/p>\n
The COVID pandemic prompted a massive shift toward remote work, a change still felt today. About 5.6% of Florida\u2019s workforce worked at home a decade ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Now, it\u2019s about 15.5%. That\u2019s down from the years right after the pandemic, but it\u2019s still a huge increase.<\/p>\n
The surprising part: Not commuting<\/a> doesn\u2019t always mean less driving. Several studies show people who work from home often drive more, even if they commute less.<\/p>\nTraditional commuters more often combine errands, appointments and other stops into their drive to and from work, making the overall trips more efficient.<\/p>\n
In contrast, telecommuters more often make separate trips for errands, school drop-offs or work-related meetings. They also tend to live farther from work, so they drive more miles when trips to the office or client meetings are necessary.<\/p>\n
As the pandemic moves further into the past, remote work is expected to decline, which could alleviate some of the pressure on our roads. But any decline is unlikely to compensate for the 2 million to 5 million additional residents the state expects by 2040.<\/p>\n
More people will mean more pressure on a transportation system that already strains to keep up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three data points this month illustrate Florida\u2019s challenge with efficiently moving tens of millions of residents and visitors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104555,28,30,29,139,25568,7153,104556],"class_list":["post-234104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-congestion-relief","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-orlando","tag-osceola-counties","tag-polk","tag-state-highway-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}