All study, little action

You would think we would have it figured out by now — what to do about traffic. 

After all, taxpayers have paid for 19 transportation studies since 2007 to help decide what to do with transportation issues affecting the barrier islands and the nearby main land roadways.

But the studying goes on. In a memo dated June 15 to the Florida Department of Transportation, the engineering firm of Stantec issued Phase I of the latest round, this one called the Sarasota/Manatee Barrier Islands Traffic Study. 

If you go through Stantec’s 44-page report, it essentially summarizes why the 19 studies were conducted and says whether their conclusions are still relevant. It’s no surprise, of course, that some of the previous studies have sat on some government shelf for so long that their recommendations are obsolete.

Take the June 2007 study: “Development of Effective Strategies to Alleviate Traffic Congestion for Barrier Islands.” It recommended helping alleviate congestion at St. Armands Circle by establishing North Adams and Madison drives as alternate routes around the circle. But Stantec’s new study concludes:

“The St. Armands Circle bypass is no longer practical due to the construction of a new 500-space parking garage at the corner of North Adams and Madison drives.”

That same study recommended increasing the northbound road capacity of the roundabout on Gulf Drive at Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach to help alleviate congestion at the Gulf Drive and Cortez Road intersection. No surprise, Stantec says that idea is still relevant — but not likely to be done. 

Nine years after that study, in 2016, another study recommended constructing a roundabout at Gulf Drive and Cortez, with a northbound-to-eastbound bypass lane. But Stantec reports, based on discussions with FDOT, “the roundabout will not be installed … due to high right-of-way costs.” 

Now let’s shift to the other nightmare chokepoints: The U.S. 41-Gulf Stream Avenue and U.S. 41 and Fruitville intersections. The conclusion is almost  jaw-dropping: 

Stantec reports that a 2016 study focused on future traffic projections at those intersections and concluded — duh — future improvements would be needed. But for everyone longing anxiously for relief at U.S. 41, Gulf Stream and Fruitville, Stantec’s Phase I report concludes, much to your dismay, no doubt: “The information presented in the project traffic report is relevant, but it is not within the scope of the Sarasota-Manatee Barrier Island study to re-evaluate intersection alternatives along U.S. 41 as part of the project.”

It’s difficult, based on the Phase I report, to be optimistic for change.  

Campaign promise kept

When Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler campaigned for election three years ago, one of her key platforms was transparency — more of it, especially when it came to the way the school board operated.

Give Ziegler credit: She has lived up to her promise — in spite of rigid resistance from three of her colleagues. 

It wasn’t big news when it occurred, but it marked a dramatic change in school board protocol and transparency. As of June 20, a majority of school board members finally agreed to a change that Ziegler has lobbied for since her election in 2014: to move the school board’s monthly afternoon workshops from a small conference room, where there was little room for the public to attend and observe, to the district’s much larger, regular board chambers. What’s more, the entire workshops are now televised, streamed live, video recorded and archived online. Previously, the afternoon workshops were only voice recorded. 

This sounds like a minor achievement. But anyone familiar with the school board knows three of its members — Shirley Brown, Jane Goodwin and Caroline Zucker — often have bristled and resisted Ziegler’s positions and efforts to change the board’s habits. 

They liked the workshop set-up — in a building away from the school board’s chambers, a place where there were few attendees and members sometimes behaved differently toward each other than in the televised board meetings. 

For three years, Ziegler broached making the afternoon workshops as transparent as regular board meetings. Ziegler finally obtained the swing vote she needed when Brown agreed to open up the workshops if Ziegler and member Eric Robinson would attend a state-sponsored training program.