Sarasota wins Smart City award

Smart Cities Connect has recognized the city of Sarasota with a Smart 20 Award for its Smart City initiative during the organization's annual conference in San Antonio.

The Smart City Initiative is a coordinated effort to achieve resiliency, improve connectivity and invest in Sarasota’s future. It includes pedestrian and traffic safety data, real-time beach and red tide monitoring technology and a program providing free Wi-Fi in four city parks.

“This initiative’s goal is to carry Sarasota toward the future while allowing for more efficient and data driven decision making,” said City Engineer Nik Patel in a news release. “We’ve seen promising and encouraging results as the initiative has taken shape, including increased precision in pinpointing areas for traffic calming, bicycle and pedestrian safety issues, resiliency efforts and much more.”

Initiatives include:

• Bicycle and pedestrian safety and traffic calming: Connected and automated vehicles camera technology, which can detect and report a range of safety issues, has been installed at 16 of 93 city intersections. A traffic-calming data program, focusing on roadway usage and traffic patterns, is in use citywide, allowing for traffic signal adjustments and assisting city staff in making data-driven traffic calming decisions.
• Beach conditions and red tide monitoring: The real-time beach conditions and red tide monitoring system, operated in partnership with Mote Marine Laboratory, provides residents and visitors the ability to access real-time reports at VisitBeaches.org. Users can access data from up to 17 locations within Sarasota city limits, including information about beach conditions, weather, surf and crowd size.
• Wi-Fi in the Parks: Free, high-speed internet is available in four city parks: Arlington Park, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, Payne Park and Bayfront Park. High-speed fiber optic lines have been installed in key areas across the city to support additional smart city technology and assist municipal and emergency communications and traffic control.

Visit the Smart City Initiative at sarasotafl.gov for more information.