Task Force makes progress with traffic fixes

When Tom Freiwald stood to speak at Monday’s Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, the usual frustrations about traffic — and lack of progress on traffic fixes — didn’t come up.

In fact, the chairman of the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force was there to compliment the Florida Department of Transportation on coming through with short-term solutions to the persistent traffic problems.

“We’re going to put a statue up of you some day in St. Armands Circle,” Freiwald said referring to FDOT Director of Transportation Operations David Gwynn, who had just finished outlining a list of actions the state was taking.

The state, which owns the bridges connecting the island, has agreed to avoid opening the spans for maintenance during peak hours in the morning and afternoon. Any openings that need to be longer than normal would happen at night, and special openings to train bridge tenders would only occur at night. Further, the state is studying a continuous, eastbound lane for the intersection of Cortez Road and 119th Street.

“Honestly, it’s a very poorly designed intersection,” Gwynn said.

FDOT will be holding public hearings on the project within the next two months, but hopes to have the improvements completed by the peak of the next season.

But in the short term, FDOT will work on the software that times the light to make it more efficient at flushing traffic.

“We might be able to make it a more responsive system,” Gwynn said.

As for the intersection of U.S. 41, Fruitville Road and Gulfstream Avenue, and the light at Sunset Drive adjacent to the Ringling Bridge, FDOT declined to endorse plans to station police officers at the lights for manual synchronization, contending that adjusting the timing could make traffic more intense at other intersections.

“They said, ‘We have to manage the whole area,’” Freiwald said. “And if we suddenly free up traffic, it has to go somewhere.”

Still, FDOT is working on plans to place a traffic monitor 1,000 feet from Sunset Drive that would change the light timing to flush traffic if it backs up to the sensor.

 And the state plans to remove one pedestrian crossing from the Fruitville intersection, though no timelines have been established.

The biggest hurdle now: Making sure people know there is actually progress.

“A lot is going on, but there’s not a lot of public appreciation for what is going on,” said Longboat Key Town Commissioner Jack Daly, who represents Longboat on the MPO board, before finding consensus to ask staff to publicize some of the short-term fixes.

Traffic flow on St. Armands Circle remains one area of focus for the task force, and the state is considering bringing back crossing guards to control pedestrian traffic. 

While funding for that would have to come from one of the municipalities, task force members remain confident about progress on traffic issues.

“You couldn’t ask for a better response,” Freiwald said.