Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Trollys as transportation within the bubble?
View Single Post
 
Old 03-30-2024, 06:51 PM
OrangeBlossomBaby OrangeBlossomBaby is offline
Sage
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 10,445
Thanks: 8,376
Thanked 11,595 Times in 3,912 Posts
Default

I was actually surprised that the Villages didn't already have a tram system, when I first came to visit years ago. My grandparents lived in Century Village in Deerfield Beach - much much smaller community, maybe the size of the Historic section with one big clubhouse, one golf course, and a pool for each section of condos. There were three or four trams total, that would go back and forth, picking up and dropping off passengers at each section with a stop at the shopping plaza where they had some medical offices as well, and another stop at the clubhouse. They'd go from around 7AM til 9:30PM, when the clubhouse closed for the night after shows (it was pretty big, with a full sized theatre, similar to the Savannah Center).

I could see a similar setup in The Villages, where each Rec Center would be a stop. But instead of one big loop like they had at Century Village, it'd be a series of loops. For instance, the Hacienda Rec Center stop would take people to the Hospital campus, since Spanish Springs is only one block away from that rec center. From the Hospital campus, there might be another route that gets people to and from the Savannah center. Hacienda would also be a stop for a loop to and from the Historic Section. Spanish Springs town square might have a loop to Sumter, another loop to the strip malls (maybe Best Buy?), another to Chula Vista rec center and then to the driving range. People could use these for day-trips, by taking advantage of transfers between loops.

It'd absolutely take much longer than driving yourself, but if you can't drive anymore, or don't want to deal with driving and parking in a town square for entertainment, you could just go to the nearest rec center and hop transfers do dinner and dancing.

Instead of a separate pass, you'd scan your ID. You can get billed by the month, the quarter, six months at a time, a full year, or per trip.