Street stakes

As coordinator of student activities at Ringling College of Art and Design, Katie Cuff is one of four on-call staff members responsible for responding to emergencies on the school’s campus.

That means her hours are reflective of the hours Ringling students keep. Typically, Cuff said, she gets called out between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., because students stay up late working in the school’s various labs — or engaging in other college-age activities.

Her work gives her firsthand experience dealing with part of the Ringling campus that’s recently come under scrutiny: a segment of Old Bradenton Road, located between Dr. Martin Luther King Way and U.S. 41. At any time of the day, Cuff says, the street is dangerous. Cars come speeding at 45 mph off of U.S. 41, many of which do not adjust to the new limit of 25 mph.

At night, the conditions of the road are exacerbated, putting Cuff on edge.

“The sidewalk ends, so I’m crawling through bushes, and there’s also no light,” she said. “It’s extremely unsafe.”

For an employee well versed in the geography of the campus, the road is intimidating. For students — including many who are new to the area and do not even have cars — the problems are likely magnified, Cuff said.

“I’m going there with a purpose,” she said. “I’m aware of my surroundings, and even in the best of circumstances, I’m not confident that cars can see me.”

Cuff was one of more than a dozen speakers with ties to Ringling College at Monday’s City Commission meeting. Those individuals laid out a thorough argument for the city to vacate a portion of Old Bradenton Road, allowing only pedestrians and cyclists to use the thoroughfare. In addition to the safety issues, the road is mostly used as a cut-through to the north for people trying to avoid traffic on U.S. 41, they argued — which meant restricting vehicular access would be no big loss.

Despite the passion of students, faculty and parents at the school, the city denied the college’s request after three hours of discussion. Still, the commission said its eyes had been opened to dangerous conditions along Old Bradenton Road, and it vowed to work with the college to improve the streetscape.

As Ringling College plans to grow over the coming years — a new library and filmmaking complex are both slated for construction in 2016 east of Old Bradenton Road — the increase in pedestrian activity will greatly outpace the increase in vehicular traffic, Ringling President Larry Thompson said. Although he knows he has to live with city roads cutting through the campus, Thompson said he was hopeful he could foster a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists.

More importantly, between the growth of the college and the dangerous driver behavior on that segment of Old Bradenton Road, Thompson is concerned about the safety of his campus.

“My big concern is I’m scared to death about our students getting hit,” Thompson said. “It’s very, very, very dangerous — that is the concern.”

City staff was sympathetic to the concerns Thompson and others voiced, but still recommended against the request. That’s because, according to senior planner Courtney Mendez, the request didn’t meet any of the city’s established criteria for vacating a street. Staff concluded that the road benefits the general public, and vacating the street would put additional burden on the surrounding traffic network.

According to a traffic study conducted by Tindale-Oliver and Associates, the road sees an average volume of 923 vehicles per day. Speakers from surrounding neighborhoods attested that the road was also used to travel to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way without cutting through a more pedestrian-heavy portion of the Ringling campus.

Although staff did not rule out the eventual closure of the street, it suggested implementing traffic-calming elements before resorting to that measure. Mendez said a variety of improvements — including completed sidewalks, protected bike lanes and pedestrian crossings similar to those that already exist on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way — could help address the issues the college raised.

The commission sided with staff, denying the requested street vacation in a 4-1 vote. Ringling administration was not available to comment on how the decision would affect the college’s plans for growth.

Vice Mayor Susan Chapman said that the advice city staff offered — and echoed by the city’s planning board and the engineering design criteria manual — was too important to ignore.

“We like Ringling College, but we still have to follow the law, and the law is something different,” Chapman said. “Just because we like somebody doesn’t mean we should make a decision that is contrary to what the planning principles are.”

Commissioners Eileen Normile and Stan Zimmerman also voted to deny the request, but expressed an interest in following up with the college to improve the roadway and enhance the safety of the area in question.

“You definitely need help, and you definitely need safety measures,” Normile said. “There’s no doubt that something can be done to make this better.”

“We like Ringling College, but we still have to follow the law. ... Just because we like somebody doesn’t mean we should make a decision that is contrary to what the planning principles are.”

— Vice Mayor Susan Chapman