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Reimagining Pine Avenue will not include one-way streets

Reimagining Pine Avenue will not include one-way streets

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria, Community News, Featured.

ANNA MARIA – One-way streets will not be part of the Reimagining Pine Avenue safety and traffic improvements being discussed by Anna Maria city commissioners.

The commission reached that 5-0 decision during a special meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 22. The decision to eliminate the concept of the one-way streets was met with approval and relief by attending residents.

The commission also reduced from four to two the potential design alternatives that contracted traffic engineer Gerry Traverso first presented on Aug. 19. The commission selected Alternatives 2 and 3 as the choices they will continue discussing. Mayor Dan Murphy noted these two alternatives may include variations to be proposed later by commissioners Deanie Sebring and Doug Copeland.

The safety and traffic improvements discussed Wednesday pertain to Pine Avenue only. Potential improvements to Spring Avenue and Magnolia Avenue will be addressed later.

Preferred design alternatives

Alternative 2 proposes buffered bike paths and sidewalks along each side of Pine Avenue. Separated from vehicular travel lanes, the new sidewalks and bike paths would improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety.

Reimagining Pine Avenue will not include one-way streets
Design Alternative 2 proposes a bike lane on each side of Pine Avenue. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted

Alternative 3 proposes sidewalks along both sides of Pine Avenue and side-by-side bike paths running in opposite directions along one side of Pine Avenue.

Both alternatives include the potential for additional stormwater treatment and improved drainage through the use of an exfiltration trench or trenches with valley gutters and inlets.

Reimagining Pine Avenue will not include one-way streets
Design Alternative 3 proposes two bike lanes along the same side of Pine Avenue. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted

During previous discussions, Traverso said the sidewalks and bike paths could be constructed using permeable concrete or permeable pavers instead of standard concrete. This would allow for better drainage but would also significantly increase the project costs.

Traverso said the new sidewalks would be configured in a manner that maintains the existing locations of the meandering pathways in front of some Pine Avenue businesses.

Both alternatives propose the elimination of 33 public parking spaces currently located along Pine Avenue in city-owned rights of way, and that remains a subject of ongoing commission discussion.

Traffic study results

According to traffic studies that Traverso conducted in mid-June, 2,730 motor vehicles turned right from Gulf Drive onto Pine Avenue during a 24-hour weekday period and 2,639 vehicles made that turn during a 24-hour period on a Saturday.

To account for peak tourist season from February through May, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) recommends increasing non-peak season traffic study figures by 16%. When adjusted for peak season, Traverso estimated 3,167 vehicles per day turn right from Gulf Drive onto Pine Avenue during a 24-hour weekday period in peak season and 3,061 vehicles do so during a 24-hour period on a Saturday.

According to the traffic study, 614 vehicles turned right onto Magnolia Avenue from Gulf Drive on a weekday and 704 vehicles did so on a Saturday. According to the study, 321 vehicles turned right from Gulf Drive onto Spring Avenue during the weekday and 415 vehicles did so on a Saturday.

One-way implications

Before the commission eliminated the concept of the one-way streets, Traverso said converting Pine Avenue into a one-way street with traffic traveling from the City Pier toward Gulf Drive would result in an estimated 3,774 vehicles turning onto Gulf Drive on a weekday and 4,067 vehicles making that turn on a Saturday.

Converting Magnolia Avenue into a one-way street with motorists traveling from Gulf Drive toward South Bay Boulevard would result in an estimated 2,525 vehicles turning right onto Magnolia from Gulf Drive on a weekday and 2,551 vehicles making that turn on a Saturday.

With Pine Avenue and Magnolia Avenue transformed into one-way streets and Spring Avenue remaining a two-way street, Traverso estimated 1,140 vehicles would turn right off Gulf Drive onto Spring Avenue on a weekday and 1,207 vehicles would make that turn on a Saturday. He estimated 1,283 vehicles would turn off Spring Avenue onto Gulf Drive during that same weekday period and an estimated 1,414 vehicles would make that turn on a Saturday.

After hearing those numbers, Copeland expressed strong opposition to the concept of the one-way streets.

“If we did the one-way pairs, you’re adding almost 5,000 cars to Spring and Magnolia. I find that totally unacceptable for those neighborhoods. I would be putting a for sale sign up if I lived on either one of those streets,” he said.

Commissioner Jon Crane suggested making Pine Avenue a one-way street while leaving Spring Avenue and Magnolia Avenue as two-way streets, but that suggestion received no support from the other commissioners.

Parallel parking spaces

Commissioners expressed differing opinions on the elimination of the parallel parking spaces located along Pine Avenue and no final decision has been made in that regard.

Copeland wants to preserve the existing parking spaces. He fears removing them would result in motorists parking in nearby residential neighborhoods and create a lack of public parking similar to what exists in the Bridge Street area of Bradenton Beach.

Sebring supports eliminating the public parking spaces along Pine Avenue. She fears preserving those parallel parking spaces could result in car doors being opened into the path of bicyclists using the new bike paths.

Traverso said the privately-owned parking spaces in front of the Pine Avenue businesses would not be eliminated or significantly impacted.

The question was again raised as to whether the privately-owned vacant lot at the corner of Pine Avenue and North Shore Drive could be used for parking. According to county records, the vacant lot was acquired by the 303 Pine LLC in June and the LLC secured a $1.3 million construction mortgage that could potentially be increased to $2.99 million.

Sebring briefly addressed the Pine Avenue parking again during Thursday’s regular city commission meeting. She expressed her hope that if the Pine Avenue parking spaces are eliminated, the Roser Memorial Community Church would provide some public parking spaces across the street from the church in exchange for the church’s continued use of the city-owned property at the west end of Tarpon Street.

Sebring also proposed using a gated area at the far end of the city-owned AMI Historical Museum property for public parking if the public parking spaces along Pine Avenue are eliminated.

Related coverage

Commissioners hear proposed Pine Avenue solutions

Reimagining Pine Avenue meetings conclude

Reimagining Pine Avenue discussions continue

‘Reimagining Pine Avenue’ study approved

‘Reimagining Pine Avenue’ study approved

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Anna Maria, Community News.

ANNA MARIA – Pine Avenue may soon be in for a traffic and safety-related makeover.

The city of Anna Maria is contracting an engineering firm to conduct a detailed traffic and safety study of the Pine Avenue corridor that also includes Spring and Magnolia avenues.

On Thursday, May 13, the city commission authorized the $50,274 project fee associated with an agenda item referred to as “Reimagining Pine Avenue.”

The study results and recommendations will be presented to the commission and the public on July 22.

“We’ve been talking about this for some time, and this is a great way to use some of the money we get from the American Rescue Plan,” Mayor Dan Murphy said.

He then introduced Gerry Traverso from the George F. Young civil engineering and surveying firm. Traverso serves as vice president of transportation engineering for the firm that’s headquartered in St. Petersburg and has offices in Tampa, Lakewood Ranch and elsewhere in the state. Traverso has more than 25 years of traffic engineering experience and is also a certified project manager who lives in Bradenton and is familiar with the area.

“We know the city of Anna Maria is not the same as the city of North Port. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. We tailor each approach to the specific characteristics of the community,” he said.

Traverso said the Pine Avenue corridor is an interconnected network of roads that includes Spring Avenue and Magnolia Avenue. The study will help develop solutions to mitigate and alleviate congestion, while also looking at how to more safely accommodate pedestrians, bikes, scooters, golf carts and other alternative modes of transportation.

‘Reimagining Pine Avenue’ study approved
The map illustrates where the Pine Avenue corridor study will take place. – George F. Young Engineering | Submitted

The study will also include recommendations for delivery trucks and other business‐related traffic along the Pine Avenue corridor.

“We know that we have a lot of commercial activity on Pine Avenue. We don’t want to hurt them in any way,” Traverso said.

Stormwater and drainage conditions will be observed and analyzed. That information will be used to help alleviate rainwater ponding that forces pedestrians and bicyclists further out into the streets.

The scope of services includes data collection, traffic counts and the analysis of vehicular turning movements in the study area intersections. The study will also produce a topographic survey for Spring and Magnolia avenues from Gulf Drive to South Bay Boulevard.

Data and input will be gathered from residents, business owners, visitors and elected officials through public meetings and the creation of a project website.

“The more you involve the community, the more buy-in you get,” Traverso said.

Results and recommendations

The study will produce up to four alternatives for each recommended solution, with cost estimates and implementation timeframes included.

“One alternative might be cheap and fast, but what is the return investment? Or do we do a different alternative that will take more time and money but provides a longer-lasting solution? We’ll do a public presentation, and we’ll show you all the alternatives and the pros and cons of each one,” Traverso said.

“We can go from simple to complex,” he said, mentioning striped parking lines or lowering the speed limit as simple solutions.

He said making Pine Avenue a one-way street going south and Magnolia Avenue a one-way street going north would be a more extreme solution.

Each recommendation will include a no-action option that analyzes what happens if nothing is done to address a particular problem: “They stay the same or they get even worse,” Traverso said.

‘Reimagining Pine Avenue’ study approved
Traffic Engineer Gerry Traverso enthusiastically explained the study’s scope and scale. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

Murphy said the July presentation date allows the commission time to include any desired actions in the 2021-22 fiscal year budget.

Commissioner Joe Muscatello said he doesn’t want this to be another case of a $50,000 study sitting on the shelf with no action taken.

“We’ve seen that too often,” he said.

Muscatello said if American Rescue Plan funds can’t be used, the commission needs to find the money elsewhere.

“We need to take this seriously and move as quickly as we can,” he said.

Commissioner Jon Crane asked Traverso if the study will take into account the unpredictable behavior of visitors when engineering potential solutions.

“We have tourists who come here and they drive crazy, and they ride bikes crazy and they cross streets without crosswalks – people who act normal at home but don’t act safely here,” Crane said.

Traverso referenced a tourist-heavy area in Treasure Island where visitors drink in the bars on one side of the street and then try to cross a four-lane road to get back to their beachfront accommodations.

He said several technical solutions were explored, but the best solution came from a landscape architect who suggested planting shrubs to create a natural barrier that forces pedestrians to cross in designated areas. Public Works Manager Dean Jones said hedges used in that manner are an effective low-cost solution that he would support in some locations.

Former commissioner Doug Copeland attended Thursday’s meeting. While in office, he often expressed concerns about the current configuration of Pine Avenue, which results in vehicles backing out into the street and includes areas with no sidewalks.

During public input, Copeland said, “ I want to applaud you for taking this on. It’s become a major issue. Our infrastructure was designed back in the early 1900s by the Anna Maria Development Company. It served the city well but it’s a hundred years old. We do need something dramatic and I hope you’ll move forward with this.”