Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/161733
Sarasota News Leader August 30, 2013 Page 52 approval for the plan, the county would have The county has only $446,000 set aside for to commit at least 20 percent of the capital BRT funding, Paul said. expense as a local match, Paul noted. WEIGHING THE OPTIONS Some communities have been putting up matches as high as 40 to 50 percent to gain Commissioner Nora Patterson told Paul she understood the current SCAT service, in confederal approval, Paul pointed out. junction with Manatee County Area Transit If the commissioners chose to pursue the sug- buses along U.S. 41, provides passenger pickgested initial corridor from downtown Sara- up every 30 minutes. sota to the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport/University of South Florida area, he To gain FTA funding for a BRT system, Paul added, the capital cost would be about $50 explained, stops — called headways — would million, necessitating a $10 million match have to be offered every 10 to 15 minutes during peak travel times. He also noted that from the county. BRT transit stations Paul also pointed out should be no greater that residents' reI just don't see how we can afford than half a mile apart quests had led staff to do this right now. I want to see that — and ideally sited to include a loop into North Trail redeveloped in the worst way. about every quarter of the Newtown commu… It needs to be a better gateway to a mile, to encourage nity from the U.S. 41 Sarasota. … But I just don't see a way passengers to walk to corridor. Those resithat we're going to be able to afford this the stops. dents, he said, "have right now. Glama Carter, the expressed a desire for SCAT manager, told increased transit freChristine Robinson Commissioner quency and also for a Patterson the current Sarasota County greater transit service bus stops on U.S. 41 and connectivity to the are less than a mile community." apart, probably closer to three-quarters of a If the county pursued a "BRT Lite" proposal, mile. it would be able to withdraw the FTA application. Under that plan, buses would run about every 15 minutes along the U.S. 41 corridor from downtown to the airport/USF area, with the ability to use signal priority technology to get ahead of other traffic and speed their travel. The projected capital cost would be $5 million to $10 million. The additional annual expense, he noted, would be about $1.3 million. "It seems to me that if you doubled the number of buses on [U.S.] 41, you've got the ["lite"] bus rapid transit [Paul is] describing," Patterson said. The county could not continue to add lanes to U.S. 41, Hines pointed out, noting he had been in Atlanta recently. Even traffic in a purportedly faster lane dedicated to drivers who had prepaid to use it "was going about 10 mph"