LONGBOAT KEY – Citing a study concluding that the 1.7-mile stretch of Gulf Drive from the Longboat Pass Bridge to Cortez Road is one of the most unpredictable in the region in terms of traffic expectations, Longboat Key Public Works Director Isaac Brownman asked the county to join the cities in finding solutions.
Brownman made a presentation to Manatee County commissioners at an April 30 joint meeting of Longboat Key officials and the county commission.
“The MPO (Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization) is conducting a congestion management plan update,” Brownman said. “And what they found was the Gulf Drive segment from Longboat Pass to Cortez Road is one of the most unreliable segments in the county – in the two-county region, in fact. And what they mean by unreliable segments – it’s not one of the most congested segments, we already know that – it’s that you can’t rely on the level of congestion. Sometimes it’s four times what you expect, sometimes it’s two times what you expect, sometimes it’s what you expect.”
He said that the top complaint in the town’s annual citizen’s survey is traffic congestion.
“We wanted to bring to the county’s attention, that the Town of Longboat Key is going to be embarking on these discussions with Bradenton Beach and we’d love the county to be at the table as well,” Brownman said.
Gate closure at Coquina Beach was brought up as one option to alleviate traffic congestion coming in and out of Longboat Key.
Brownman said a simple, cost-effective solution that will help with traffic is to close some of the access points at Coquina Beach, which is at the southernmost end of Bradenton Beach.
“The Coquina Beach parking lot is a very large beach parking lot with three access points. The center access points have a simple gate that can be shut,” he said. “That isolates each parking area from the other and keeps people who are in a long-standing queue from hopping into the southernmost access point and traveling 4/10ths of a mile to travel further north and jamming things up further.”
Brownman said when Manatee County park staff close those gates, there is a noticeable improvement in traffic flow.
“If that simple thing is done consistently throughout season from a certain time of day, it’s a significant cost-easy improvement from our perspective,” he said.
He said Longboat Key residents’ main concern is to get from Longboat Pass to the Cortez Bridge to get to the mainland.
“The FDOT is spending millions of dollars to upgrade Cortez Bridge and that will be a huge improvement,” he said. “They’re also planning the replacement of the Longboat Pass Bridge which, depending on which option they go with, will reduce the number of bridge openings and closings which contributes to the congestion as well.”
“Take a good hard look at the Bridge Street traffic circle,” he said. “This would be the perfect time to look at the Gulf Drive and Cortez Road intersection. Even though the state is doing a major bridge project, they’re not looking at the end point intersection and how to improve that at this time.”
Longboat Key Vice Mayor Mike Haycock said much of the traffic congestion in season is due to employees of Longboat Key businesses coming to the area to work.
“To reiterate, in those 90 days of hell during season that everybody’s talking about, the people of Longboat Key decide in those 90 days not to go north,” he said. “Not to go to Anna Maria Island for dinner like we do many other times. For the workers that live in Manatee County who are working on Longboat Key, it can cause them an extra 1.5 to two hours to get to work, so any help you can give to support some additional studies to see what else we can do would really be helpful.”
