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Transportation in Florida

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The State of Florida is served by a wide variety of transportation options, including Interstate Highways, United States and Florida State Roads, Amtrak and commuter rail services, scheduled passenger service and other airports, and public transportation in many of the state's counties and regions.

Highways

Florida's interstates, state highways and U.S. Highways are maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Florida's interstate highway system contains 1,473 miles (2,371 km) of highway, and there are 9,934 miles (15,987 km) of non-interstate highway in the state, such as Florida state highways and U.S. Highways.

Florida's primary interstate routes include:

Florida's secondary interstate routes include:

Florida has several toll roads, totaling 515 miles (830 km) of the state highway system. Major toll roads include:

  • I-75, as it passes through the Everglades between Naples and Fort Lauderdale has been grandfathered as a toll road from its original construction as S.R. 84
  • Florida's Turnpike, which begins at US 1 in Florida City and continues north through the western suburbs of South Florida turning northwest at Fort Pierce and continuing through central Florida, passing west of Orlando and ending at I-75 near Wildwood, 23 miles (37 km) south of Ocala. Florida's Turnpike has the distinction of having the farthest distance between two exits of any limited-access highway in the United States. It is more than 47 miles (76 km) between exits 193 and 240; there is a service area with fuel at milepost 229.
  • I-275 Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which connects Pinellas County with Manatee County

U.S. Routes

Intercity rail

In 2000, voters approved a constitutional amendment to construct a high-speed rail system to interconnect Florida's major cities. A committee was formed by the Florida Legislature to oversee the project; however, in 2004, Governor Jeb Bush and other lawmakers pushed for an amendment to remove the amendment, which succeeded. They stated that the cost would have been too high to construct the system, but proponents of the system said the claims regarding high cost were exaggerated and taken out of context, compared with the cost of building roads, maintaining automobiles, and so forth. The Florida High Speed Rail Authority, originally formed to implement the high-speed-rail amendment, has vowed to find a way to implement the system without the amendment.

Amtrak service exists in Florida: Sanford, in Greater Orlando, is the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train, which originates at Lorton, Virginia, south of Washington, DC. Orlando is also the eastern terminus of the Sunset Limited, which travels across the southern United States via New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio to its western terminus of Los Angeles. Florida is served by two additional Amtrak trains (the Silver Star and the Silver Meteor), which operate between New York City and Miami.

Airports

See also: List of airports in Florida

Major international airports in Florida which processed more than 15 million passengers each in 2005 are Orlando International Airport (34,128,048 est. 2006), Miami International Airport (32,533,974 est. 2006), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport(22,390,285 est. 2006) and Tampa International Airport (19,045,390 est. 2006).

Secondary airports, with annual passenger traffic exceeding 5 million each in 2005, include Southwest Florida International Airport (Fort Myers) (7,518,169 est. 2006), Palm Beach International Airport (West Palm Beach) (7,014,237 est. 2006), Jacksonville International Airport (5,741,652).

Regional Airports which processed over one million passengers each in 2005 are Pensacola (1,638,605), Sarasota-Bradenton (1,337,571), and Tallahassee (1,129,947) and Sanford (1,649,237) which is primarily served by international charter airlines.[2]

Other smaller, regional airports with commercial service (with passengers served in 2005, where available) include those at Daytona Beach (615,841), Fort Walton Beach (520,000), Gainesville (345,788), Key West, Marathon Key, Melbourne (466,367), Naples, Panama City (382,551), and St. Petersburg-Clearwater (596,510).

Public transportation

File:Govtctr.jpg
A Miami Metrorail train at Government Center in Downtown Miami.

Miami's public transportation is served by Miami-Dade Transit that runs Metrorail, a heavy rail rapid transit system, Metromover, a people mover train system in Downtown Miami, and Metrobus, Miami-Dade's bus system. Metrorail runs throughout Miami-Dade County and has 22 stations on a 22.4-mile (36.0 km) track connecting to Downtown Miami's Metromover and Tri-Rail. Metromover has three lines and 21 stations on a 4.4-mile (7.1 km) track connecting Uptown and the Brickell Financial District inside of Downtown Miami. Outside of Miami-Dade County, public transit in the South Florida metropolitan area is served by Broward County Transit and Palm Tran; intercounty heavy rail service is provided by Tri-Rail, with 18 stations including the region's three international airports.

Orlando utilizes the LYNX bus system as well as a downtown bus service called LYMMO, and has attempted to plan a local light rail service for years. A commuter rail service – SunRail – has been approved by all concerning counties and is in final planning stages.

Tampa and its surrounding area use the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority system, called "HARTLINE" or simply "HART" for short. In addition, downtown Tampa has continuous trolley services. Pinellas County and St. Petersburg provide similar services through the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority or "PSTA". The beaches of Pinellas County also have a continuous trolley bus. Downtown St. Petersburg also has a trolley system, called the Looper.

In Volusia County, VoTran provides bus transportation throughout the entire county. Express service to Orlando is also provided.

In Polk County, the Citrus Connection and Winter Haven Area Transit (WHAT) provide regional transportation in the cities of Lakeland, Bartow, Winter Haven, Auburndale and smaller surrounding municipalities and unincorporated areas.

Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment in 2000 for the construction of a high speed rail network. Due to public skepticism about the multi-billion dollar price, voters repealed this amendment.[3] The first segment of this network, projected to have opened in 2009, would have connected Tampa and Orlando, in hopes of alleviating traffic on the busy Interstate 4 corridor. Later segments would have connected Miami, Fort Meyers, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Pensacola.

See also

References

  1. ^ I-275 Florida
  2. ^ 2005 North America Airports Traffic Statistics URL retrieved September 15, 2006
  3. ^ http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/snapshot/sf041108.htm
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