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BRANDON — Terry O'Connor says the choice is simple: Sit in traffic and pay $50 in weekly fuel costs or let someone else do the driving.
O'Connor chooses the latter. He catches the 25LX bus to his job at MacDill Air Force Base.
Dozens of other Hillsborough Area Regional Transit commuters do the same, and by the time the 5:55 a.m. bus reaches O'Connor's stop at Town Center Boulevard and Providence Road in Brandon, it's standing room only. O'Connor doesn't mind, though.
What does bug him and other HART riders, he says, is the scramble to find parking now that the lot where they used to leave their cars is off-limits.
For years, the riders parked behind Barnacles restaurant at 926 Town Center Blvd. and then walked half a block to catch the bus at Town Center and Providence.
But what began as a trickle of cars a few years ago swelled to four or five rows of parked vehicles. Barnacles ended the practice to make room for paying customers.
A few weeks ago, the restaurant posted fliers on windshields warning that starting Feb. 6, commuters' cars would be towed if they were left in the Barnacles lot.
"I can't fault Barnacles," said O'Connor, 55, who has been using the lot for a year. "They've got a business to run. Their job isn't to allow me to park there so I can go to work."
The decision left the riders hunting for alternatives and highlighted a dilemma HART has grappled with since the commuter routes started spiking a few years ago, thanks in part to rising gas prices. With ridership growing in the suburbs, the search for available parking has gotten tougher.
For the full article, visit the Tampa Bay Times.
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