Multi-modal highway designs considering all users with as good or better travel time can complete improved mobility to more people sooner at less cost -- the mission of the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization. Herald Tribune Dec 13 Guest Column.

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'Multi-modal' will get us moving more quickly
at less cost
Published: Monday, December 13, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
A tale of two cities you know, each cut by a
federal highway:
Ten years ago, Sarasota created a 2020 Master
Plan to reconnect the Sarasota bayfront to its
city, bifurcated since the 1950s by U.S. 41,
which was designed as a high-speed highway
dedicated to vehicles.
Twenty years ago, Venice planned to widen the
U.S. 41 Bypass into a six-lane, high-speed
highway dedicated to vehicles.
Since then, Sarasota completed citizen-involved
mobility studies with traffic professionals teaching a "multi-modal" concept that's
safer, achieves better mobility for drivers and pedestrians, and doesn't increase
travel time. The studies concentrated on managing intersections and creating
multi-modal designs that have been proven in the United States. Multi-modal
features are described at www.SarasotaConnectivity.com.
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If funded, Sarasota's U.S. 41 multi-modal corridor, from the University of South
Florida to Osprey Avenue, has potential to be the nation's longest working
demonstration of "context-sensitive" features -- employing roundabouts-in-series to
stimulate economic vitality, sustainability and livability while lowering auto
insurance rates, increasing property values, saving fuel and reducing air pollution --
without adding lanes.
Dominated by vehicles
The Venice Bypass plan doesn't do that. Venice has never done a citizen-involved
mobility study for the Venice Bypass. Its six-lane, plus turn lanes, plan continues a
high-speed, vehicle-dominated artery.
If Sarasota's U.S. 41 multi-modal concepts were applied to the Venice Bypass, the
Venice area would enjoy improved mobility sooner than the five-year wait it will
take to complete intensive widening.
Road widening there will not relieve congestion, as the Bypass intersections will still
impede traffic flow -- with more accelerating and braking -- and the wider
intersections will increase pedestrian risks.
The fact that widening does not relieve congestion on a corridor like the Venice
Bypass is now being realized in the six-laning of U.S. 301 under way -- a comparable
corridor that is interrupted by intersections with stop lights. Officials have said they
would not have approved a six-lane U.S. 301 if they had known that today's modern,
safer and less-costly multi-modal methods would benefit all users on wheels and on
foot.
Today, this tale turns a new chapter for these two cities when a choice will be made
by the Sarasota-Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization: Continue with past
practice or choose a state-of-the-art plan?
Will the Venice Bypass begin next year buying private property along the roadway
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and perhaps complete the project within five years? Or will Venice pause to conduct
a bypass mobility study to address a four-lane corridor disrupted by intersections,
just as Sarasota did?
Since U.S. 41 is a federal highway, its roadwork needs federal and state fuel taxes
and fees funneled through the Florida Department of Transportation. The DOT's
spending decisions are directed by the board of the MPO, comprising 15 elected
officials from Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Held up by costs
The MPO decides where the money goes first. The Venice Bypass has been the
MPO's top priority since 1991. But it hasn't been done because it costs so much to
buy private property to add lanes along 1.2 miles from Bird Bay Drive to Gulf Coast
Boulevard. The DOT projects the cost to widen U.S. 41 north and south of Venice
Avenue at $54 million. Compare that with the Sarasota bayfront multi-modal plan,
which is half the cost of the bypass and would be completed earlier.
The MPO expects to receive $14 million a year in federal and state money. The
Venice Bypass widening would consume Sarasota County's entire share for at least
the next five years.
A Venice Bypass choice means residents in both cities will not see any U.S. 41
traffic-flow improvement until 2016. Drivers through both cities will wait at least
that long to feel congestion relief on this arterial route splitting their cities.
The Venice Bypass could be an elegant multi-modal segment in a U.S. 41
multi-modal corridor from Palmetto to Charlotte County, as envisioned in the MPO's
2035 Long Range Transportation Plan.
Shouldn't $54 million in taxpayer money be based on "best use" rather than the
argument "they've waited so long" to widen the Venice Bypass?
Best use is a U.S. 41 multi-modal corridor, through both Sarasota and Venice, which
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would deliver improved mobility to more people sooner at less cost -- the MPO's
mission.
Rod Warner is past chairman of the MPO Citizens Advisory Committee and
participates in TheCITYalliance.
This story appeared in print on page A8
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