In Manatee County, more work is being done to improve the flow of traffic.
- Survey produced good feedback, except from those dependant on public transit
- FDOT looking for more feedback from bus riders on how congestion affects them
- Once surveys are complete, FDOT plans to evaluate all of the responses
Earlier this year, the Florida Department of Transportation asked residents to fill out a survey about their thoughts about the congestion in the area.
Traffic backups are a big problem, especially for Palmetto.
Whenever there is an accident on I-75, the congestion is terrible as drivers try to cross the Green and Desoto bridges from Palmetto to Bradenton.
FDOT is trying to help.
They said the survey gave them good feedback, but they didn’t hear from everyone.
“We did the survey in January online and we got a great response,” said Patty Hurd, the Assistant Project Manager with FDOT. “We got over 1,000 survey respondents at that time and we continued to get more survey respondents. But, what we’re particularly aiming for is to get those that are transit dependent or those who have zero automobile ownership.”
Hurd said in an effort to hear from more people who rely on the bus to get around town, they have crews out asking bus riders to fill out surveys.
They’re getting their input on how the congestion is affecting them.
“Every day I work, I ride the bus,” said Brad Smith.
Smith takes the bus to get to his job at Wal-Mart. He said although he doesn’t deal with the same headaches as drivers, the back-ups still impact him and other drivers.
“There were actually three of us from Wal-Mart on the bus last week and there was an accident on I-75. Everybody was coming around and we were all about a half hour to work late.”
FDOT is hoping to use this information to help everyone in the community.
Once the surveys are complete, FDOT plans to evaluate all of the responses and determine what needs to be done to fix the traffic problems.
If you’d like to take the survey online, visit: www.cmnaa.com.