I Didn’t Need a Report to Know Tampa Traffic Is Bad

I was just watching our local news on fox13tampabay.com, and they had a story on a ConsumerAffairs report about which cities have the worst traffic. The city I have to travel to for work (Tampa) was ranked 13th worst in the nation and number 3 in the state, behind Miami and Orlando.

I will say I don't know much about Miami. I’ve only been there once for a few hours before leaving. Orlando, though, is definitely worse than Tampa. I've lived in the City of Tampa proper and now live in the suburbs, Brandon, and the traffic has always been bad in both places. But over the last couple of years, since everyone returned to the office, it has been the worst I’ve ever seen.

The only time I saw traffic improve around here was during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I drive from Brandon to the USF area of Tampa for work. It used to take me about 30 to 35 minutes. Nowadays, no matter what time I leave, it takes me 40 to 45 minutes if I have to be at work at 9 AM. On Mondays, when I have to be there by 6:30 AM, it is manageable and still takes me exactly 30 minutes. I can attest to what the researchers found and say it's worse than they make it out to be. The commute times they cite are probably too optimistic. If you get caught behind a crash, good luck. You could be stuck for an hour or more on the interstate.

Researchers found the Tampa driver has an average commute time of 28.3 minutes, which is a 1.1% decrease from last year, but is still higher than the national average (26.9 minutes). Meanwhile, Tampa reported 14.01 fatal car crashes per 100,000 people, which is a 12.8% decrease from last year, but also higher than the national average (11.33).¹

What makes it worse is that I-75 is under construction. I think they are trying to add a lane in both directions. I can't say for sure, because it's really hard to tell what they’re doing right now. Most of the work is on one bridge over a waterway called the Bypass Canal.

I’m glad I don’t have to drive downtown anymore. I dread having to go that way when I visit Tampa General Hospital for echocardiograms during these first few months on my new heart medication. I would much rather drive to USF Health.

All I know is that I’m so glad to get home on the days I have to drive in, and I feel blessed that my job now lets me work remotely three days a week. If I had to go back to driving all five days, I would pull my hair out. The one day I go in early is fine on the way there, and I can tolerate it. But even coming home at 3 PM is a challenge. Wednesdays are tough both ways, and my blood pressure peaks on the drive home.

So when I saw this report, I said to myself, “Yes, I could have told you that.” The real question is, when will Tampa and Hillsborough County stop growing, when will people stop moving here, and when will the state and county finally upgrade the roads — or better yet, overbuild them for once?

#TampaTraffic #CommuterLife #FloridaLiving