- December 17, 2025
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The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to be placed in Longboat Key’s efforts to make Gulf of Mexico Drive a “complete street.”
Complete Streets is a term widely used to explain a transportation policy meant to accommodate all transportation methods: car, bike, foot or public transit. The concept has been adopted by municipalities across the country, usually involving changes to a handful or even dozens of roads. But Longboat Key’s one-road-in, one-road-out layout gives the town a unique opportunity to make the island a Complete Streets community by only altering one street: Gulf of Mexico Drive.
“Gulf of Mexico Drive essentially serves as the town’s main street,” Assistant Town Manager Isaac Brownman said. “It is a great opportunity to be able to change the face of just one road corridor and have such a dramatic positive impact to the community over time.”
Gulf of Mexico Drive is a state road — State Road 789. That fact was well publicized this summer after the Florida Department of Transportation removed signs from mast arms that labeled the road as “Gulf of Mexico Drive.” That action by the state agency led to debate about whether to rename the road, which the town opted not to do. FDOT returned the Gulf of Mexico Drive signs after the town’s decision.
But while FDOT and Longboat Key may have disagreements on what to call it (FDOT refers to it only as State Road 789), they do agree on what it should look like. FDOT formally adopted a Complete Street policy in 2014. The state agency also developed a Complete Streets Implementation Plan, which was made “to ensure that future transportation decisions and investments address the needs of all users of the transportation network.”
FDOT’s approval of the Complete Streets vision leads to funding opportunities for the town, Brownman said.
Complete Streets is a term bikers and cyclists love to hear. Tom Saunders is a Longboat resident, president of the Longboat Key Bicycle Association and a five-day-a-week cyclist. He describes Gulf of Mexico Drive as a popular road for bikers.
“People drive here to cycle up and down Gulf of Mexico Drive,” Saunders said. “So it’s like a destination for people on top of all of the local people that commute to Ace Hardware or Publix or one of the parks.”
Saunders uses the on-street bike lanes for recreation as a cyclist, and also uses the sidewalks when riding a bike more leisurely to run errands. He said the road as is accommodates bikers, but improvements are possible. Things that could improve from the biker’s perspective include widening the sidewalk and bike lanes, and making surfaces more even and smooth.
“I think probably the main issue at this point is the sidewalk, whether you call it a sidewalk or a multi-use path is probably debatable. The condition of it in a lot of places is not particularly good. There’s a lot of uneven pavement and cracks. They have addressed that in places, but there’s still work to be done there,” Saunders said. “So I think probably the priority would be to address that to make it more of a proper multi-use path with a wider, smoother surface to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.”
The town laid out its intentions of making Gulf of Mexico Drive a Complete Street in a 2023 document titled “Gulf of Mexico Drive Complete Street Corridor.” The document begins by explaining the goal of the plan “to create a safe, resilient and aesthetically pleasing Complete Streets corridor that maintains vehicle traffic and enhances the Town’s unique sense of place.”
According to the study, probable costs for improvements along the entire 10-mile roadway would likely be around $30 million. That’s not including if the roadway were elevated, which would cost $2.5 million per mile.
Implementing the goals outlined in the plan won’t be done all at once. Planned to be completed in segments, making Gulf of Mexico Drive a Complete Street is something that will be done piece by piece, Brownman said.
Typical road sections illustrated in the plan show a single north and southbound vehicle lane separated by a turn lane and landscaped, curbed median. On each side of the traffic lanes are bike lanes, and to one side of the street is a buffered 12-foot multi-use path that can accommodate bikers and pedestrians. That wide multi-use path is something bikers like Saunders would welcome. Right now, the multimodal path parallel to Gulf of Mexico Drive varies in width.
A typical road section also includes pedestrian crosswalks with a “pedestrian safety island” in the median.
The recent addition of curbed and landscaped medians and repaving of 0.84 miles of Gulf of Mexico Drive from Channel Lane to Longboat Club Road — known as the Country Club Shores Turn Lane Project — is the first step in the town’s Complete Streets makeover. That project, which was completed this month, included expanded bike lanes with a wider buffer between vehicle lanes.
“That’s really an example of what our Complete Streets would look like as we look to do that through the whole island except for the sidewalk piece,” Town Manager Howard Tipton said.
Raised concrete medians like those installed as part of the Country Club Shores turn lane project are an example of a traffic calming improvement, according to the town’s Corridor Plan. That’s something town leaders would like to see more of on Gulf of Mexico Drive, with the plan stating one of the town’s goals is to “add raised landscaped medians where feasible along the entire corridor to calm traffic and provide pedestrian refuges.”
Traffic calming efforts like curbed medians aren’t usually permitted on a state road with a 45 mile per hour speed limit like much of Gulf of Mexico Drive has. That led to initial conversations about whether it would be a good idea to reduce the speed limit of Gulf of Mexico Drive to 35, something for which bikers advocated. That speed limit reduction is not likely.
“In general, the Town Commission didn’t want to change the speed limits across the island, but recognized that they did want the road to be enhanced,” Brownman said.
With step 1 (Country Club Shores) complete, the town is shifting its focus to the next Complete Streets project eight miles north.
The Broadway Street roundabout has been in the works since 2021. The town is working to finalizing design plans by February for the project, which would include bike lanes and a 12-foot multi-use trail.
After Broadway Street, the town would shift its focus to a project development and environment, or PD&E, study for Gulf of Mexico Drive, Brownman said. That study will look at potential environmental impacts, gather public input, evaluate stormwater impacts and more. That study will also determine if it’s necessary to add to the right of way in any areas to make the Complete Streets improvements.
“Part of what the PD&E study analyzes is if there’s enough room in the right of way to conduct the project without having to acquire easements or additional right of way,” Brownman said. “That’s one of the key things that FDOT is going to be looking for to come out of the study. In terms of pavement, yes there’s enough room, but in terms of stormwater management for the extra impervious (surfaces), that’s the question that needs to be answered.”
The process will take time.
“I think the plan is superb,” Saunders said. “It’s just how long it will take to achieve it.”
