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Sarasota News Leader August 30, 2013 Page 58 WEIGHING THE PROPOSALS As Blanchard made her Aug. 27 presentation to the County Commission regarding SCAT's Transit Development Plan, she pointed out that the grant funds for the Siesta trolley would be available as of July 2014. Commissioner Nora Patterson told Blanchard she had been unhappy with an earlier report that the trolley service could not start until 2016. "This has been promised to the [Siesta] Village merchants for forever," Patterson said, "as well as the [condominium complexes on the key], who are sort of appalled that it wasn't going to come until 2014 or 2015." Patterson added, "It is a route that will have a lot of ridership, I think, when you start it." The trolley serving the island communities on Longboat Key certainly has proven to be a success, she noted. A map shows the planned route for the Siesta Key trolley. Image courtesy of Sarasota County ation, Blanchard said. "We checked the webAlthough Siesta Public Beach will get 140 site; we checked the phone numbers." more parking spaces as a result of the planned park project, Patterson pointed out that once Although that service could begin again next those improvements are completed, "we're go- season, Blanchard continued, there was no ing to be back to fistfights for parking spaces. guarantee it would. I really think a trolley would help a lot with Moreover, Blanchard pointed out, that service that problem. … We've always discussed that." was different from the fixed-route, seven-dayHer unwillingness to approve extra money for a-week schedule SCAT was proposing for the the budget, Patterson added, was another rea- Siesta Trolley. son she supported the Siesta trolley over the Then Hines asked about the ridership on the University Parkway route. current SCAT route serving Siesta Key. "How Then Vice Chairman Charles Hines noted that full are the buses?" a private company operated a shuttle from Route 11 "is one of our higher-performing Southgate Mall to Siesta Key during the past routes," Blanchard told him. According to season. He did not want the county to comSCAT statistics, that route averages 8,000 pete with a commercial business, he added. to 9,000 trips per month in off-season and Staff had undertaken research regarding that 12,000 to 13,000 trips per month from January shuttle and could not find it was still in oper- through March.