Transportation planning effort rolls forward

What would it take for you to walk more? To bike or use public transit? What issues do you encounter driving around Sarasota?

These are some of the questions posed to people who attended a pair of workshops the city held June 4 to discuss a major planning initiative: Sarasota in Motion, the city’s transportation master plan.

Through next summer, staff is working with consultant ADEAS-Q to produce a document outlining the city’s transportation needs. The goal is not only to  identify priorities and potential projects, but also to lay out a strategy for actually making the master plan’s recommendations a reality, including funding strategies.

It’s still early in the planning process, but officials say the information gathered during this public engagement period will help shape staff’s final recommendations. Although an online survey remains open, Chief Transportation Planner Colleen McGue said some common themes have already emerged from this month’s workshops.

Chief among them: People say safety is a priority.

“They would bike more or walk more if they felt safe doing it, especially outside of downtown,” McGue said.

Some of the other resident requests included more shade, more frequent transit service that is better connected to major regional hubs and more resilient transportation infrastructure.

One topic McGue said didn’t come up much at the workshops was traffic.

“Which is interesting because in general, I hear a lot about congestion in the day-to-day emails,” she said.

At the workshops, ADEAS-Q President Jason Collins said the city was interested in making it easier for residents to use alternate modes of transportation. McGue said that aligns with the in-person input the city has received so far.

“They still maybe want to have their car and drive for a lot of trips, but from what it sounds like, people want to have a lot of other options, too,” she said.

The city said it has received hundreds of responses to the survey so far, but it hopes to get even more feedback in the coming weeks.

Even if residents miss their opening to speak up now, McGue said there would be more chances to offer their thoughts as the city makes progress on the master plan. Staff will present the survey results to the City Commission this fall.

“That’ll be another opportunity to the community to weigh in if they feel those results aren’t consistent with their vision,” McGue said. “In general, we’ve had a very good response with the survey.”

Although the master plan won’t be ready for another year, McGue said the process of putting the plan together could include some small demonstrations of potential projects like protected bike lanes to test their viability citywide.

“Seeing where maybe there’s a place in town where we could try something out temporarily and see how it works and what the community appetite is for that type of change,” McGue said. “Something we could implement in the short-term.”