Here’s your chance to have input on making Bradenton and Sarasota roads safer
None of the high-crash intersections in the Bradenton-Sarasota area that appear on a 2019 safety assessment report will come as any surprise to residents who regularly drive those choked roads.
Well represented are 14th Street West, State Road 70, Cortez Road and University Parkway.
David Hutchinson, executive director of the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Organization, believes that local drivers might have a thing or two to share about traffic.
If so, there is a workshop set Sept. 27 to allow the public to have its say about prioritizing regional transportation safety needs.
“The simple act of going to the grocery store, running an errand, going to work, going to school, or visiting family and friends should not be a near-death experience,” Hutchinson, executive director of the MPO, said.
The Destination Zero Workshop — so named for the goal to eliminate fatalities and injuries on local roads — is set for 10:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 27 at the Bradenton Area Convention Center, 1 Haben Boulevard, Palmetto.
Space is limited and reservations are requested at https://bit.ly/Destination-Zero.
The MPO is the regional transportation planning entity for Sarasota and Manatee counties with representatives from 11 cities and the county governments. The MPO sets priorities for local road improvement projects.
The MPO is analyzing traffic crash data, asking community members to tell about dangerous streets and intersections, and what safe safe streets mean to them.
Regional transportation safety challenges include making sure it is safe to walk and bike in the region, providing safe access for people with disabilities, ensuring there are safe routes to school for children, and eliminating traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries.
In the past six years more than 700 people have lost their lives and more than 8,500 have been seriously injured on the streets of Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Although the list hasn’t changed since 2019, the Manatee County high-crash intersections on the top-10 list include:
▪ No. 1 - U.S. 41/14th Street West at 53rd Avenue West
▪ No. 2 - U.S. 41/14th Street West at Cortez Road West
▪ No. 4 - State Road 70/53rd Avenue East at Lockwood Ridge Road
▪ No. 5 - University Parkway at Lockwood Ridge Road
▪ No. 6 - University Parkway at Cooper Creek Boulevard
▪ No. 8 - U.S. 41/North Tamiami Trail at University Parkway
In 2020, the MPO presented its Transform 2045 plan to address traffic needs through the year 2045, when the population of the Bradenton-Sarasota area is expected to climb to 1.1 million.
“The growth is astronomical in this area,” Corrine Tucker, the MPO’s multi modal planner, said Wednesday. “This workshop will help tell us what the strategies will be.”
The plan proposes 50 miles of new roadways and widening projects, 160 miles of technology improvements for traffic management and future autonomous vehicles, more than 20 projects for urban core redevelopment, including 11 new roundabouts, and 65 miles of bike, pedestrian and complete street improvements.
For more details about the Destination Zero Workshop, visit the project page at https://www.mympo.org/p/performance-measures/safety-security/destination-zero.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 2:34 PM.
