Residents, town cite traffic as top priority

Want to know how important the seasonal traffic issue is for Longboaters?

When Town Manager Dave Bullock brought up an islandwide $42.1 million undergrounding utilities project to more than 75 people at a North End Property Owners Coalition Forum April 22, at the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, a Division of Ringling College of Art and Design, many in the audience didn’t want to discuss the issue. 

“Why don’t you use that money to fix the traffic problem?” asked resident Jules Rauch. “We can’t live with the traffic we have now. We can live with the power lines. We have to think about our priorities.”

The question sparked a half-hour debate from residents who told Bullock they are sick of the seasonal traffic gridlock that forces many of them to stay home rather than face sitting in their cars for hours on Gulf of Mexico Drive. 

“If we could use money to place officers at Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach and other locations, it would help,” said resident Herman Kruegle.
Bullock said that may be true. But he said the Florida Department of Transportation has to be the agency that addresses roads it controls, such as Gulf of Mexico Drive.

And on April 28, Bullock told the board of the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization that if the Sarasota-Manatee area can’t manage traffic more efficiently during season, it will be in danger of losing both tourists and residents to areas that can. 

Bullock requested and received support from the MPO for a comprehensive traffic analysis of all traffic points that affect traffic from the barrier islands to the mainland. 

The MPO, which prioritizes both federal and local state transportation projects in both Manatee and Sarasota counties, directed FDOT Monday to conduct an analysis that will include looking at everything from traffic light timings, additional turn lanes, pedestrian crossings and other factors. 

FDOT District 1 Secretary Billy Hattaway told the MPO board that FDOT will report back to the MPO at its June 22 meeting for a strategy for the analysis and how much it will cost. 

Bullock and Longboat Key Mayor Jack Duncan have worked for the past two months to gain support for the regional traffic analysis among neighboring agencies and municipalities. 

Bullock says FDOT “must own the problem” because it owns and controls all of the roads involved as part of the analysis. 

Bullock told residents last week  at the north end forum that he’s hopeful the study will help. 

“We’ve seen businesses tell us their customers aren’t coming back,” Bullock said. “And homeowners say their renters aren’t coming back. There are complaints we’ve never heard before that need to be addressed.”

Spanish Main resident Tom Freiwald told north end residents he and the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force don’t believe such a study will solve the problem altogether, though.

Freiwald is urging for a group of residents on Longboat Key and neighboring municipalities to look at the traffic issues from a different perspective.

“Our suggestion is bringing together a north end team and a south end team to review traffic system suggestions that have no baggage and can look at the system from a different point of view,” Freiwald said. “If you change a traffic constraint right now, you create another problem. We need to look at the whole process to fix the problem.”

Bullock likes the suggestion but still believes FDOT has to be a part of the solution. 

“They control the roads,” Bullock said. “Like it or not, they have to be a part of it.”