Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Page 86 With perpetual concerns about parking on Siesta Key, the Sarasota County Commission moves ahead on a plan to implement trolley service — in the form of a regular bus with appropriate decal "wrapping" to make it resemble a trolley — starting after July 2014. The unanimous vote comes at the end of a discussion that pits the Siesta route against new service for University Parkway — including service at the forthcoming University Town Center and the Benderson Park rowing venue. Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) has a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to cover half of the Siesta trolley's operating expenses for three years, no money is available right now for the proposed University Parkway route. With 17 new SCAT buses arriving in May or June 2014, Sarah Blanchard, the SCAT planning manager, tells the board during its regular meeting on Aug. 27, the department would have the necessary two extra buses to extend Route 11 seven days a week from downtown What won the day was the ongoing worry to Southgate Mall to Siesta Village and on to about the county's future budgets. While Turtle Beach. % For a bus rapid transit system to be successful, sufficient development must exist to inspire riders to use a route, county staff says. Image courtesy Sarasota County