{"id":85706,"date":"2025-12-16T20:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85706\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T20:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:10:07","slug":"air-taxis-are-no-solution-to-browards-traffic-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/85706\/","title":{"rendered":"Air taxis are no solution to Broward\u2019s traffic woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 3, the Sun Sentinel published an article headlined \u201cAir taxi developer planning commuter network<\/a>.\u201d Frustratingly, it read more like a press release for the company.<\/p>\n

This concept certainly could be an answer for traffic congestion, but only for the wealthy and connected few, leaving the rest of us dealing with the same problems on the ground. I laughed at the claim of them being \u201ccomparable in price to ground transportation.\u201d How? By comparing it to a chauffeured Rolls-Royce?<\/p>\n

\"JoeJoe Winn is a member of the local advocacy group Better Streets Broward. (courtesy, Joe Winn)<\/p>\n

Overpromise and underdeliver is common with such transportation \u201csolutions.\u201d See Elon Musk\u2019s Hyperloop scam (a means to \u201cderail\u201d California High Speed Rail<\/a>), Uber (formed on the premise<\/a> of undercutting taxi pricing to eliminate competition sufficiently to raise prices), or \u201cpod-based\u201d automated cars and rail-connected vehicles (often VC-backed reinvented trains, but worse).<\/p>\n

The article would benefit from hard-hitting questions into the company\u2019s financial models. What\u2019s the cost structure? How can trips of four non-wealthy riders ever pay for a multimillion dollar aircraft and what it takes to operate it? What\u2019s the daily trip capacity?<\/p>\n

Even with 10-minute frequency for 18 hours a day (imagine hearing these take off and land 216 times daily in urban areas), and assuming they were full each trip, these vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft would carry 432 people. For comparison, a typical arterial road carries 30,000-60,000 vehicles per day, and Tri-Rail carries 16,000 riders daily. This is not a traffic solution; it\u2019s a rich person\u2019s toy to avoid our society\u2019s issues.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, we already have a solution for everyone to gain similar time-freeing and money-saving relief for transportation woes: Trains and buses. Yes, our bus network carries mainly lower-income riders; that\u2019s because we have essentially no \u201cchoice riders\u201d (people who could drive but choose to ride the bus), since it is an inferior alternative in most ways.<\/p>\n

I would love to see an article on how the transportation surtax Broward voters approved and pay into is being used to improve (or not) our bus network. Has Broward Transit\u2019s budget been supplanted by surtax funds, mirroring the \u201clottery funds for education\u201d allocation trickery? How is the proposed South Florida commuter rail line planning to spend $1 billion<\/a> for roughly 1,000 daily riders?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tri-Rail, which is facing existential funding challenges for no reason besides political stubbornness, moves the equivalent of one lane of I-95 traffic per day, eliminating that traffic for everyone else. We can do more of that \u2014 with more trains, not flying pods.<\/p>\n

Great transit helps both riders and also everyone else. If you\u2019re always going to drive your own car, then you want others riding buses and trains, because they\u2019re then not creating traffic for you. Amazing transit literally makes driving better. These VTOLs won\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

More people using transit reduces delays, pollution, crashes and health care costs while improving property values near areas served by transit.<\/p>\n

These VTOL craft might be quiet at cruising altitude, but they are not when landing or taking off. And if they\u2019re actual urban transportation, then they\u2019ll need to be in actual urban areas. Do you want to listen to them thrumming every couple minutes?<\/p>\n

Bottom line: Even if these are not actually just another techbro scam like Hyperloop, they will only ever be a tool for the ultra rich to further separate themselves from the rest of society, while the rest of us continue to lose. Let\u2019s put our efforts on solutions for everyone.<\/p>\n

Joe Winn, of Plantation, is a lifelong resident of Broward County and member of Better Streets Broward, which advocates for equitable, effective and safe transportation and housing solutions for our region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Dec. 3, the Sun Sentinel published an article headlined \u201cAir taxi developer planning commuter network.\u201d Frustratingly, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[483,249,251,250,114,482],"class_list":{"0":"post-85706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-commentary","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","11":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85706","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=85706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}