Mobility Meetings – your cheat sheet for creating a better downtown

The noise ordinance, homelessness and now mobility --- we need your turnout on Thursday, Nov. 1 at one of two 90-minute sessions (one at 4 p.m. and the other at 6) held at City Hall. The Mobility Study (see the flyer here) is more than a transportation plan. Done well, it will be the support framework for a creative city. Before we get to details, it’s good to think big picture. Here is our short list of the principal ideas to drive the effort (so to speak):

• Develop different strategies for different places.
• Make places where people choose to be out and about.
• Make walkability as the base unit for design --- you can operate cars in a pedestrian-dominated environment, but it doesn't work the other way around.
• Provide options for getting around.
• Link land use, building design and transportation for the system.
• Double down on information to make walking, biking and transit easier.
• Conduct a “lessons learned” from the parking fiasco to provide better parking --- a critical piece of mobility.

Cheat Sheet – The cranks will be out screaming about the “Immobility Study,” greedy developers and congestion. All the arguments have a superficial appeal, but have the effect of stopping good redevelopment. To whit, they complain about density and traffic --- but if this were true, downtown would be the most congested area in Southwest Florida. It is not thanks to the underlying street patterns, alleys and connections. They assert that no development can take place until the "infrastructure is in place."  Well in Sarasota, it is --- it's called a city, and the Mobility Study is all about using that infrastructure better. Here are the four main areas:

Mobility Districts – If you look at great, livable cities, they aren't one big blob; they are a collection of great places often led by great plans that stitch these places together. Sarasota really doesn't have that yet, but the Mobility Districts look like they could be good land use planning --- not just for transportation. The trick for Mobility Districts is the street network: The denser the pattern and greater the connections, the better suited for walking, use mix and density. In some areas of the city, actually making more connections via new streets or even walking paths will be needed, though not necessarily more density. 
What to look for: Where the mobility districts are, how they are linked and how the city looks at the land use/transportation framework for each individual mobility district.

Complete Streets – The complete streets movement started a couple of years ago when streets were designed for one mode: cars. Since then, even Florida has caught on with more sidewalks, bike lanes and room for other modes of getting around. The trick for complete streets is not just painting more bullshit bike lanes on extra-wide streets. Performance is not just the existence of a sidewalk or land, but how it fits to really make walking, biking and transit comfortable, safe and convenient. 
What to look for: There will be trade-offs since streets are essentially valuable real estate. How will the city balance pedestrians, bikes, cars, landscaping, outdoor dining and so on? Is the city focused on the mere existence of the parts, or on how they fit together with land uses, economic development and connections?

Financing Strategy – To entice redevelopment, over time cities have reduced or eliminated the fees developers pay to cover infrastructure. This leaves a conundrum: How to stimulate redevelopment, but recognize some financial support for the infrastructure that makes the developer’s project viable in the first place.
What to look for: A lot of people who oppose the mobility study and only want you driving in cars don’t want to swap road impact fees for multi-modal fees. But cities are not sprawl --- you cannot add lanes. The trick is to fund infrastructure improvements that get more mobility incrementally using the most of the infrastructure you have in place.  Even NYC is doing this effectively. Look for a fee system that funds effective walk, bike and transit infrastructure.

Downtown Circulator – Downtown merchants have clamored for years for a circulator of some sort. Given how spread out the downtown and attractions are, this makes sense.
What to Look for: Ask questions on the goals of a circulator and focus on which routes and stops link meaningful trips. If the goal is to reduce traffic, then linking Walmart would do the trick, but the trolley would carry riders past other stores. If hotels are major stops, then where do tourists want to go? What about condo residents? Workers on lunch breaks?

What is your number one priority for moving Sarasota's land use and transportation into the 21st century?