Town survey drives point home about traffic

Traffic is a hot topic these days — and has been for seasons.

You’ve heard it all by now.

"A ride to downtown Sarasota took 95 minutes the other day."

"We could have flown to Atlanta in the time it took to drive to the airport."

"Stopped on the bridge, never moved, for 20 minutes."

But now, more than anecdotes from the road, town leaders have data from Longboat Key’s 2022 Citizen Survey, conducted for the third year in a row John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government at the University of South Florida.

Traffic congestion has been a regular headliner in the survey results since the project began in 2020, but this year, questions focused on some of the effects of slowed-down travel to the south and over the bridge to Sarasota and to the north and over the bridge into Bradenton.

"From our three years of doing this now, there’s no bigger issue on Longboat Key than traffic and the effects of what’s happening off the island — at least there’s nothing more on residents minds, I should say," said Dr. Stephen Neely, a USF professor who worked with the town on the survey and presented findings on Monday.

Among the most telling data points:

• 73% of the survey’s 1,441 respondents said they have been adversely affected by off-island construction.
• Nearly 30% said they have had to add travel time to normal drives or more carefully plan their trips in response to the disruption.
• 28% said they have avoided trips, scaled back social outings and been reluctant to leave the island because of the disruptions.
• 3% said they rely on smartphone apps or computer software to deal with traffic, though 11% said they would be interested in learning more about them.
• 57% said they were dissatisfied by traffic on the island, up from 52% in 2021. 

"What we’re seeing in most places as the COVID-19 pandemic starts to abate, people are going back out and risking more social trips, more social activity, more people being out and about, and here we see a third of respondents saying they’re leaving the island less often and that seems to be linked directly to the traffic issue," Neely said.

Longboat Key leaders for years have worked with city, county and Florida Department of Transportation officials to keep the barrier island flow of traffic in mind when planning construction projects, such as the roundabout now being worked on at Gulfstream Avenue and Ringling Causeway in Sarasota.

Also, through the now completed Barrier Island Traffic Study, a series of recommendations were devised to help smooth the flow through such traditional bottlenecks as St. Armands Circle and Bradenton Beach.

Traffic was among respondents’ three most important issues on the island in the 2021 and 2022 survey, and it was listed as number four in 2020. Only beach erosion was a more consistent concern through the three years.

"It did hit me seeing traffic up there every year, that while most of our goals we have pretty clear metrics, that we get to look at and approve and look for trends, traffic is one we’ve struggled with before and kicked around some ideas," said Commissioner Mike Haycock. "But I really think we need to have a way to measure the traffic pain in real live numbers. While we can’t do very much on the island, a lot of things can be done to us on both ends of the island."

Using public transportation, the survey shows, is a bit of a toss-up. About 43% of respondents said they would be very likely or somewhat likely to use an on-demand public transportation system, but 4% said they had used such a system.

Sarasota County Area Transit launched an on-demand transit service similar to Uber in June, linking the island with downtown either as a destination or a connection point. Manatee County also offers an on-demand service, though town officials have spoken to county leaders on both sides to consider some kind of unified islandwide service.

Resident Jim Whitman said many of his neighbors would likely not choose to give up their personal cars.

"Just in passing in regards to public transportation, I have noticed people of means do not take buses," he told commissioners. "They say they will, but they don’t."