You're right, we do have several options. The one on the table is to spend +$600 million on a little bus system that won't be operational until 20 years from now. Even then, it won't even stretch past Gateway Mall to the north, Regency Mall to the east and Baymeadows Road to the South. You can have a commuter rail system running on our double tracked lines and already owned COJ rail right-of-way through the northside for less than one-tenth the cost of that bus system JTA wants. If you want your taxes raised, then buses is definately the way to go.
Our transportation needs also extend beyond I-95 and I-10. Considering costs, access, quality of life and positive infill development impact, implementation of commuter rail appears to be the cheapest and most efficient form of alternative transit improvements that we can make in the First Coast. By the way, we favor commuter rail because our population density can't support more expensive heavy or light rail systems.
As far as taxes being raised, I'd rather keep the same by implementing cheap commuter rail, then jacking them up to fund additional multi-billion dollar road projects like 9B, that only make it easier to live in areas OUTSIDE of Duval County and local road congestion worse. Its time to either jump on board now, while start up cost and land values are cheap, then to be forced into it a few years down the road after paving more environmentally sensitive land.
Based on your comment, it seems you may be confused about the different types of rail and their costs, compared to major road construction projects and Bus Rapid Transit. When you compare costs and benefits apples-to-apples, what you get with urban commuter rail vs. the others will make you think twice. Here's a link to a Metro Jacksonville study that will bring better clarification on commuter rail.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/blogcategory/18/58/
