Timelines
What is today the Global Transit Guidebook by HARTride 2012 was started back in 2008. On this page, I’ll highlight the major milestones that have helped me bring the site to where it is today.
2008
The Tampa Transit Utopia Blog
In 2005, I discovered an online forum called Skyscraper City, which discusses urban development, transportation, & many other related topics. While I formally didn’t join the forum until 2007, the growing number of communities – including a dedicated section for the Tampa area – allowed me to get a glimpse of what others were talking about regarding the region.
Following my high school graduation in 2006, I wanted to start up some sort of hobby website or blog. However, there wasn’t as many resources available to me to be able to start one & I really didn’t want to deal with manually coding in each individual page of the site, so I wound up giving up at that time.
In 2008, I stumbled upon a few different blogs that were hosted through Google’s Blogger service. After learning about how to use the service, I launched The Tampa Transit Utopia Blog on April 13 of that year to express my experience using the Hillsborough Transit Authority (HART) bus system & my concerns about how the system has been woefully underfunded. I strongly felt at the time that the blog would eventually allow me to better advocate for better public transit – not just in Tampa, but across the U.S.
2009
Tampa Bay Transit by HARTride 2012
As I navigated through college, I was approached by transit enthusiast & former transit bus operator Shawn B. regarding taking over a website that he created about the HART bus system. I graciously accepted the offer & began structuring a new website to house all of the content that he had gathered. Putting together the new site was not easy & I struggled to find a stable, yet affordable website host. After several false starts, I was eventually able to discover the Sites platform from Google & build the new website from there.
The Tampa Bay Transit by HARTride 2012 officially launched on April 10, 2010 & the blog was renamed The Tampa Bay Transit Blog.
Following my trip to Belgium & France in 2009, I had a separate website for a time called Europe Transit by HARTride 2012 – which was launched on August 24, 2010.
Due to college classes, work, & other obligations, I struggled to keep my blog & websites updated. So much so that I took a hiatus from late 2011 through the summer of 2012 so that I better focus on getting my Bachelor’s degree.
2013
Public Transit as told by HARTride 2012
After discovering the WordPress platform, I migrated all of my content from Google Blogger & Google Sites & created a unified website where I could continue to create posts about public transit while expanding on my collection of transit related content. Public Transit as told by HARTride 2012 was officially launched on March 20, 2013 & has undergone several redesigns & expansions since.
2014
Building a team
In 2014, fellow transit enthusiast Zac Z. began publishing several guest pieces for the website. Zac works as a public transit bus operator today & has embarked on many worldwide travels. Be sure to thank him for all of his contributions to the site!
2016
The Global Transit Guidebook
As the site continued to gradually expand, I wanted to instill a global focus – hence the rebranding to The Global Transit Guidebook. The rebranded site, including the current domain name, debuted on October 12, 2016.
2021 – Present
Covid pause & re-launch
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I took another hiatus to focus on adjusting to the world of remote work, ordering food & groceries from apps, & staying clear of transit to allow those who can’t work remotely to get where they need to go.
In 2021, I gradually resumed my transit outings & have been able to embark on three out-of-state trips since the end of the Covid lockdowns.
I recently took a short pause to re-evaluate where things stood with The Global Transit Guidebook & see if it was better to stick to WordPress or move to another hosting provider. Between the many new features that WordPress has to offer & the difficulties encountered with the host that I tested out, I decided to stick to the former for the foreseeable future. With that being said, I’m now in the midst of working on yet another website transformation. While the web address & site name will remain as they are, you’ll see new layouts for many of the existing pages, as well as new content & pages, not to mention new blog posts as time allows.
The Global Transit Guidebook 
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