The Interlocking Metropolitan Region of Central Florida

January 6, 2002 -

We at Magplane Technology Inc. know of at least three major international urban transportation planning projects where authorities are hoping to merge adjoining metropolitan regions into one urban area and have described them in this web page:

1. The Southern California Association of Governments and their consolidation of their region into one urban travel market by deploying a maglev urban application (various magplane website articles)

2. The Ranstad Deltametropolis of The Netherlands (November 26 and April 30th 2001)

3. And the Interlocking Metropolitan Regions of China (March 26, 2001)

And it appears that Florida is taking the initial steps to begin building the Interactive Megalopolis of Central Florida from Tampa/St. Petersburg on the west coast to Orlando, only 37 miles from the East Coast. Along this 105 mile long corridor lie two principal metropolitan regions located at both extreme ends: Tampa/Clearwater/St. Petersburg with a population of 2.4 million; and Orlando with a population of 1.6 million. Lakeland a community in Polk County situated 37 miles due east of Tampa has a population of .5 million is also included.

Spurred on by Orange County Chairman, Rich Crotty, Central Florida is hoping to diversify its rich tourism base by developing a High Tech Region in this corridor. With 4,000 high tech firms already employing more than 70,000 workers, Central Florida wants to expand its technology base to emulate the successes of several major high tech regions in the country, such as San Diego, CA.

It already has the requisite high tech industry incubator with a major research and development university in the region. Central Florida is also able to attract a skilled labor force because of the affordable cost of living, no state income tax, and the temperate climate. However, there remain serious obstacles.

In mid December, 200 business, government and university leaders assembled in Kissimmee to address the major elements of a strategic development plan for Central Florida. Known as Myregion.org, the group has identified 13 issues: education, transportation, development, culture, health care, diversity, government, public safety, history, infrastructure, the economy, tourism and the environment.

Chief among them is the challenge of moving large volumes of commuters along this 105 mile corridor. But the nature and type of transportation requisite is still largely unidentified. Does the region build more roads to handle increased capacities? Or does the region also hope to collapse the commuting distance separating the disparate metropolitan regions of Central Florida. It takes roughly 2 hours to drive the 105 mile corridor, too long for normal commuting times. If the region does indeed want to radically expand the commuting possibilities, then the automobile mode irrespective of the congestion challenge, will not be able to provide that accessibility to a regional labor force.

If a new transportation mode is needed, then it will have to merge the travel range of high speed inter-city technologies with the cost, convenience, travel-time budget and reliability of mass transit intra-city technologies. In other words, building a subway system that can run above ground at speeds sufficiently high to connect any two travel points within a sixty minute time span or less.

We know that the State of Florida is again attempting to find a way to build a high speed rail/maglev service. But it seems that the designers have to ask a central question. Will the selected transportation technology help transform this important state corridor into a High Tech region that can offer accessibility to a skilled labor force beyond the metropolitan limits of today's technology to include the entire labor force of the region?

For the last 15 years, the State of Florida has tried to build a High Speed Rail corridor using the French TGV technology. Thankfully, the system has not been pursued. The TGV while relatively fast, is not able to provide daily commuting service for its own citizens in France: its capacity is constrained, it costs too much for daily commuting; it only provides downtown to downtown service; and at two hours between Lyon and Paris, it is still too long for commuting trip purposes. Even if it were to be built along the Central Florida corridor, a 100 mile trip would take less than one hour to complete but the capacity, cost, and station access and egress problems would remain.

(For a detailed examination of the weaknesses of the TGV in the Central Florida market, please visit our archives and select "Magplane: Linking Metropolitan Regions in Central Florida," dated the 16th of April, 2001.)

And there are other transportation technologies vying for an opportunity including maglev. But for many, their exclusive reliance on speed does not allow them to provide a mass transit experience for daily commuters with: conveniently distributed stations; affordable mass transit fares; long distance commuting ranges from 50 miles to almost 250 miles; and convenient and frequent departures without the need for reservations.

Because the Magplane Commuter System is specifically designed to convert existing intercity travel markets into time, cost, and convenience equivalent intracity commuting markets, this system would be perfectly suited to promote increased interdependence between the urban nodes of Central Florida.

This article is published with the express permission of Richard Zavergiu the author. Please visit www.magplane.com for further facts.

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