Regional planners juggle transit, freight and flood studies this spring
By Lisa Neff
The Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization is moving forward on five transportation studies this spring, examining everything from freight corridors and flood vulnerabilities to expanded transit options including rail and ferry service.
The MPO is the region’s transportation planning entity. Its team in March updated its boards, including the technical advisory committee and the citizens advisory committee, on a range of studies, including:
• Advancing organizational safety culture and prioritization process studies, headed by Nina Venter;
• A regional freight analysis, directed by Nick Chiavini;
• A watershed and transportation asset analysis and a regional transit feasibility study, led by Jane Li.
In the regional transit feasibility study, the MPO team is identifying ways to expand services and options, as well as improve fixed routes and paratransit.
The study, to be completed by July 2027, will result in an implementation plan.
The team currently is assessing the existing transit network. Next, they will define transit needs.
In addition to discussing the bus systems in Sarasota and Manatee counties, the MPO is having conversations about rail, airport connections and ferry systems.
The watershed study involves evaluating transportation infrastructure for vulnerabilities to storm surge and flooding to improve resiliency.
The MPO is collecting data and reviewing flood models, with a goal of completing the study by January 2027.
“We’ve also been interviewing our partners from departments like stormwater, wastewater and resiliency and trying to collect feedback and ask questions,” said Li. “Roughly from the end of April to early May, we’ll be conducting another round of stakeholder interviews.”
With the regional freight analysis, the MPO aims to map the regional freight network and locate freight activity centers, then recommend projects to improve freight movement by March 2027.
Currently the MPO is inventorying infrastructure, studying truck traffic, parking and industrial land use, according to Chiavini.
“The next milestone involves digging deeper into those freight activity centers — looking at first- and last-mile connectivity, as well as what kinds of goods are being moved through and originating in and shipped to those areas,” Chiavini said.
The MPO also is planning to interview freight movers, including talking with representatives from Seaport Manatee, Tropicana, Publix, Amazon, UPS and FedEx about emerging trends.
Chiavini said the MPO wants to make sure its analysis and recommendations are “grounded in real-world experience.”
In evaluating the prioritization process, the MPO is working to update scoring criteria for transportation projects by late December.
Venter described this work, which takes place every few years, as “business as usual.”
The goal with the advancing organizational safety culture study is to identify ways for the MPO to prioritize safety.
The research, with a workshop in late March, is expected to result in a strategic improvements plan in May.
The work should be completed by June.
Members of the MPO’s technical advisory committee heard about the studies March 9, as did members of the citizens advisory committee, which currently has an opening for a Manatee County resident.
Manatee seeks citizen for advisory committee
Manatee County is accepting applications for a resident to serve as an at-large member on the MPO Citizen Advisory Committee, which provides input in the transportation planning process that reflects citizens’ views and attitudes.
CAC members represent a cross-section of citizens in Sarasota and Manatee, including residents of the municipalities within those counties.
CAC representatives are recommended for appointment by their respective units of local government and are appointed by the MPO Board.
The committee typically meets at 5 p.m. in the main conference room at the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization 0ffice, 5460-A 63rd St. E., Bradenton, on the second Monday of January, March, May, September and November.
Applications may be found online at mymanatee.org and are due March 31 at 3 p.m.
For more information on how to become a CAC member, contact the MPO office at 941-359-5772 or email Kelly DeForest at kelly@mympo.org.