Why Is Traffic So Bad In Tampa?

Why is traffic so bad in Tampa? Next time you are sitting and not moving…and getting increasingly frustrated, take a breath and turn on Q105 so you can relax. But if you’re curious as to why traffic is so bad in Tampa Bay, we can explain.

It really comes down to good old-fashioned mathematics. There are a ton of cars on the road, but not enough space for them to travel through. This is why there is congestion in any major metropolis around the country or world. The trend has been for people to move TO the Tampa Bay area not away from it. I remember being an accountant at a Big Four accounting firm and learning that highway construction was treated as an expenditure, rather than an investment in assets in governmental accounting. If politicians want to be re-elected, they must attempt to keep their budgets in check, so when you have great expenditures, like highway construction, it hurts. And so sometimes the correct decisions are not made when it comes to how big an expansion project needs to be. Highways and roads that are under construction are not being expanded enough to accommodate our growing population.

Speaking of construction…some say traffic is so bad in Tampa because there are so many highway and road construction projects happening, from the Howard Frankland to work in South Tampa. All of this construction can mess traffic up and cause day-to-day jams.

The tourists who come to Tampa for their vacation add to the economy but also clog up the roads and highways. Tourist drivers create next level traffic issues, as they don’t know how to navigate our highways and construction.

As we head into next week with back-to-school, and you encounter increased frustration with traffic, now you know why. As our area has grown, we haven’t had decisions made by our local government that have given us enough infrastructure.