Manatee County way behind in building multi-use paths for bicyclists, pedestrians
Seventy pedestrians and bicyclists killed. Seventy people killed in 1,278 crashes. Sound like a disaster? It is.
Since the beginning of 2011, 70 people have died in a total of 1,278 bicycle or pedestrian crashes in Manatee County. While our neighbor counties have developed numerous bicycle-pedestrian trails and have plans for many more, Manatee County has zero miles of multi-use pathways outside of parks and preserves.
In 1997 Manatee County commissioners approved an "action plan" for "greenways" "to provide alternative transportation modes between homes, schools, work, shopping, and other destinations ..."
In 2002 the Board of County Commissioners approved a comprehensive multi-use pathway plan, the "Manatee County Greenways Master Plan," which proposed 12 safe urban trails. Although portions of these pathways have been constructed in parks and preserves, there is no connectivity between them.
In 2013 the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization adopted the "Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Trails Master Plan" which proposed over 135 miles of multi-use pathways for Manatee County, including many of the "trails" that were included in the 2002 plan. To date no funding has been requested for any of these connecting pathways.
I recently discovered that unlike our neighbor counties, there is no one in Manatee County who is responsible for oversight of multi-use pathways, sidewalks, and bicycle lanes. The result is no specific requests for funding have ever been made and we have no safe multi-use pathways in Manatee County.
Had the county been proactive in multi-use pathway construction since 1997, by now we would have many safe connectors for cyclists and pedestrians and certainly some of those 1,300 crashes and 70 deaths would not have happened.
It is time for the county to appoint a knowledgeable advocate as "bicycle-pedestrian coordinator" and start funding some of the multi-use pathways that have been "planned" for over 15 years.
Edward Goff
Bradenton
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee County way behind in building multi-use paths for bicyclists, pedestrians ."