Comments on: Quote of the Day: Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg on the drivers of Tampa Bay

By: Jonah

Jonah — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:16:51 +0000

Yeah this definitely gets discussed in The Extra 2%. My favorite thing about the bridge and the psychological divide:

The FIRST thing you see when you complete the cross from St. Pete to Tampa is a big side directing people to George Steinbrenner Field, home of the Yankees.

By: jasoncollette

jasoncollette — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:23:48 +0000

I make the 125 mile drive from East Orlando 15 times a year. It’s all about wanting to be there. Bridges are just an excuse and it’s a joke to whine about traffic on one of the 4 bridges people can take over. Howard-Frankland bridge (275) is awful, but I cruise right along the tollway to Gandy and then Hw92 into downtown St. Pete.

By: skerney

skerney — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:58:00 +0000

I worked for an MLB team in St. Pete for a few years. Employees would always gripe about having to “Go over the bridge” to Tampa.

By: florida76

florida76 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:48:44 +0000

There has definitely been a Tampa Bay area trend in recent years for drivers to stop using their turning signals. Guess its not cool anymore to increase the odds of avoiding a crash. Young or old, soccer moms or people gabbing on the cell phone for no reason, it’s moronic.

By: jimbo1949

jimbo1949 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:28:42 +0000

Down in Tampa you never know when a ship is gonna take the bridge out from under you.
In DC there’s more to VA-MD than a bridge to cross: construction, lane shifts, entitled drivers, speeding trucks, congestion, I-95/495.
If you’re going to the US Open later this month, from VA, you have to park in MD and take a shuttle back to Congressional. More traffic nightmares.

By: APBA Guy

APBA Guy — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:08:03 +0000

Having lived for significant periods of time in both DC and SF, I can tell you that there are certain non-bridge commutes that are also intolerable, such as Woodbridge to the Pentagon along I-95. In SF, crossing the Bay Bridge from the East Bay to SF is a deal breaker for sure, but a lot of people I know won’t do San Mateo to San Jose which is up and down 101. Whereas SF traffic has stabilized at “bad” right now, DC continues to get worse and worse.

That aside, since I also spent time in Tampa, I suspect Sternberg was doing his best to be diplomatic. I’ve seen people of a certain demographic in Tampa stop dead in the their lane once they realize they are heading onto a bridge ramp. Just freeze. Then try to back up. All of this at night yet. Exciting. Even my mother, who is 83 now, moved from St Pete to Orlando because the “old people” in Tampa were such bad drivers. Her words, not mine. But she was a whipper-snapper when she said that, at 76, so no outraged comments, please.

By: xnumberoneson

xnumberoneson — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:50:51 +0000

Bridge avoidance seems to be a common thing even in small cities. I live in Harrisburg, PA, which has very little traffic relative to major markets. Even here, there is a psychological divide between the east and west shores of the Susquehanna River. People don’t like crossing to the other side.

By: Conor Dowley

Conor Dowley — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:43:20 +0000

It really is a bridge too far.