TRAFFIC CALMING
Sept 15, 5-6:30pm Traffic Calming Plan Open House: See What’s Proposed for YOUR street & area.
at Ken Clark Auditorium at Robarts Arena/Fairgrounds, on Fruitville. TCP Open House Flyer
At this next step in the Traffic Calming Plan, wherein changes in speed limits & various other traffic calming methods for many City streets are being considered, they're ready for more neighborhood feedback. Open house format (not a presentation), so drop by at any time during workshop to see tentative plans and talk to the planners. This is District 3, but if you can't make that, go to one of the other sessions: Sept 2 at Bayfront Community Center (back of Muni Auditorium on Trail) or Sept 16 at Robert Taylor (both 5-6:30pm). Can't attend? You can still review project information and provide comments: SarasotaFL.gov/TrafficCalmingPlan or email Corinne.Arriaga@sarasotafl.gov.
April 17 2026 was deadline for public City Traffic Calming input. The City is planning to reduce speed limits on many of our roads. At the Area C meeting on March 26th, they presented information about how the City has been evaluating speeding, city-wide, and reviewed the proposed traffic calming strategies designed to support speed reduction, all of which is available online for your review. ... See the City's working Traffic Calming Plan online for detailed information plus a handy interactive map where you can provide valuable local-knowledge input. Next-step meetings will be held, probably later this summer.
March 26 2026, City Traffic Calming (Area C) public meeting... learn about how the City has been evaluating speeding, city-wide, and review the proposed traffic calming strategies designed to support speed reduction. The City is seeking your feedback on the Draft Neighborhood Traffic Calming Maps to ensure they accurately reflect your community’s needs. Details, see the City's working Traffic Calming Plan .
With more ongoing, widespread concerns about heavy traffic speeding through neigborhoods... The City had a Survey Feb-Apr 2025 for public input. The City is doing outreach for their comprehensive new Traffic Calming Plan, a proactive approach to auto traffic calming (slowing speeding) on residential streets throughout the neighborhoods. See Traffic Calming Plan. on City website for more details.There is also an interactive map (scroll further down) where residents can drop a pin (mark a location) of local speeding problems, including adding comments. Later this year 2025 the staff will be meeting with neighborhood associations to bring more outreach throughout the City to develop the plan.
Wed Feb 19 2025: Traffic Calming Town Hall Meeting, 5:30pm, City Hall. The City is making some changes on how neighborhood residents can choose to enhance neighborhood traffic calming. For full details, see also Plan on City website.
Speed limit is 25mph on residential roads in the neighborhood (excepting slower for School Zones)
School Zone automatic traffic speed cameras & ticketing. Effective January 2025, speed enforcement cameras in Slow Zones during school opening/closing times, near Alta Vista Elementary (and at a later date, near Sarasota High), WILL ticket you if you speed in the posted school zones. So, just don't!
2024: ordinance to install speeding detection systems (video, photo) in select school "slow" zones throughout the City, to automatically ticket ($100?) speeders in those areas during "slow" morning & evening hours (which are already posted on road signs). Zones include, for Alta Vista Elementary, Tuttle near Browning, also 900-1100 S. Shade, possibly Euclid; and for Sarasota High, 2000-2200 Bahia Vista. See City Commission meeting Aug 5 2024, click on backup for details. That backup document includes actual traffic counts including speed counts from March 2024, which shows ALARMING numbers of speeding cars in these areas; for Alta Vista Elementary analysis see pp55-56, 59-60 and 63-64; for Sarasota High on Bahia Vista St see pp 63-64.
2024: ordinance to install speeding detection systems (video, photo) in select school "slow" zones throughout the City, to automatically ticket ($100?) speeders in those areas during "slow" morning & evening hours (which are already posted on road signs). Zones include, for Alta Vista Elementary, Tuttle near Browning, also 900-1100 S. Shade, possibly Euclid; and for Sarasota High, 2000-2200 Bahia Vista. See City Commission meeting Aug 5 2024, click on backup for details. That backup document includes actual traffic counts including speed counts from March 2024, which shows ALARMING numbers of speeding cars in these areas; for Alta Vista Elementary analysis see pp55-56, 59-60 and 63-64; for Sarasota High on Bahia Vista St see pp 63-64.
Traffic Calming School Ave? Speeding traffic has been an ongoing issue throughout the Alta Vista neighborhood's residential streets (not unique to Our Neighborhood). There's an ongoing push, largely from residents of Payne Park Village, for the City to do something constructive about the continuing problem of car drivers speeding on School Ave; one result is that the "your speed" digital signs, as well as posted speed limit signs, are again functioning. (School, Shade and Wood are well-known cut-thru streets to avoid traffic congestion on the major road arteries that border our 'hood.) They've also been trying to get a crosswalk and curb cut at their main entrance to cross over to Payne Park, a very heavily-used pedestrian crossing location; the City continues to veto this idea, citing the two signalized crosswalks recently installed, one at either end of the development.
Hatton Street Traffic Calming Initiative: After initiating the process for getting a Speed Table on Hatton St between Shade & School (which SHS supports), the Traffic Calming group decided that there was insufficient neighborhood support, and also decided that a speed table there was a bad idea, in that it would cause worse traffic on nearby streets. So this iniative has been cancelled. The City did, however, do some road re-striping at this site and on other local streets.
Hatton Street Traffic Calming Initiative: Update July 2022.
This was for increasing safety of car traffic on Hatton Street between Shade and School: a Speed Table (similar to the existing speed table on Hatton between Shade and Euclid).
July 2022 update: request for speed table has been cancelled. After getting wholehearted support of SHS, Traffic Calming committee decided that this was a bad idea that would lead to shifting traffic to neighboring streets [Ed. disagrees] and that, rather than gathering signatures, they projected that they would would be unable to get sufficient support from homeowners, as required by the City.
July 25 update: the City will instead do some striping and signage for traffic calming on this block.
June update: the City specified that to move forward, AVNA must get signatures of 60% of the property owners of 41 specific houses within a certain radius of the potential speed bump, plus written approval from Sarasota High School, before early September. Lisa and Maureen are working on mailings to the property owners (since not all live on-site) and/or going door-to-door, and Linda is approaching administration at SHS. Correction to AVNA email inviting all AVNA residents to sign petition: only Property Owners of 41 SPECIFIC designated houses will be considered.
This was for increasing safety of car traffic on Hatton Street between Shade and School: a Speed Table (similar to the existing speed table on Hatton between Shade and Euclid).
July 2022 update: request for speed table has been cancelled. After getting wholehearted support of SHS, Traffic Calming committee decided that this was a bad idea that would lead to shifting traffic to neighboring streets [Ed. disagrees] and that, rather than gathering signatures, they projected that they would would be unable to get sufficient support from homeowners, as required by the City.
July 25 update: the City will instead do some striping and signage for traffic calming on this block.
June update: the City specified that to move forward, AVNA must get signatures of 60% of the property owners of 41 specific houses within a certain radius of the potential speed bump, plus written approval from Sarasota High School, before early September. Lisa and Maureen are working on mailings to the property owners (since not all live on-site) and/or going door-to-door, and Linda is approaching administration at SHS. Correction to AVNA email inviting all AVNA residents to sign petition: only Property Owners of 41 SPECIFIC designated houses will be considered.
Background: In Feb 2022 Ms. Mirabelli met with City staff on behalf of the neighborhood to request a traffic study on Hatton Street between Shade and School, with the intention of getting some sort of traffic calming installed on that block.
The City did a traffic study, results of which (heavy traffic plus speeding) DO merit traffic calming measures along this street. At May 26 2022 AVNA meeting the City presented options to be chosen by neighborhood residents: 1) signage and striping, 2) chicane plus (1), 3) speed table plus (1). The speed table option was selected.
Crosswalk Improvements
In 2021 AVNA residents worked with the City to request improvement, generally restriping, of some specific crosswalks and consideration of adding others.
Restriping of existing crosswalks throughout the neighborhood did happen in Sep/Oct 2021; however City staff did implement traffic studies, which failed to support the need (by standard road planning standards) for additional crosswalks.
Here is a map showing the status of some of these crosswalks. In brief, green is restriping, red is (was) evaluation of adding new... However, the City is not moving forward with the proposals (other than repainting the faded existing crosswalk markings).
In 2021 AVNA residents worked with the City to request improvement, generally restriping, of some specific crosswalks and consideration of adding others.
Restriping of existing crosswalks throughout the neighborhood did happen in Sep/Oct 2021; however City staff did implement traffic studies, which failed to support the need (by standard road planning standards) for additional crosswalks.
Here is a map showing the status of some of these crosswalks. In brief, green is restriping, red is (was) evaluation of adding new... However, the City is not moving forward with the proposals (other than repainting the faded existing crosswalk markings).
Crosswalk and Traffic Studies
In July 2021, AVNA arranged a walkabout in the neighborhood with City officials regarding resident requests for improved road safety signage and signals, focussing primarily on pedestrian issues including crosswalks, to show them current conditions at some of our most concerning intersections. Since the permanent closure of School Ave at the High School, traffic patterns have shifted, impacting pedestrian safety in various spots. Lisa Mirabelli worked with Dennis Hughes, City Traffic Engineer. Traffic cameras were placed at several intersections (Browning at Shade, Bay at Shade, Wood at East) to measure traffic volume.
Residents can call City Traffic Engineer Dennis Hughes (via City switchboard 941-365-2200) to make their concerns known.
In July 2021, AVNA arranged a walkabout in the neighborhood with City officials regarding resident requests for improved road safety signage and signals, focussing primarily on pedestrian issues including crosswalks, to show them current conditions at some of our most concerning intersections. Since the permanent closure of School Ave at the High School, traffic patterns have shifted, impacting pedestrian safety in various spots. Lisa Mirabelli worked with Dennis Hughes, City Traffic Engineer. Traffic cameras were placed at several intersections (Browning at Shade, Bay at Shade, Wood at East) to measure traffic volume.
Residents can call City Traffic Engineer Dennis Hughes (via City switchboard 941-365-2200) to make their concerns known.
(May 2021) Some AVNA members are actively exploring several issues:
School Traffic Zones (restricted speed), including signage and locations. And why SSIS Charter School on School Ave at Bay Street isn't incorporated into a School Zone. !?!
Safer pedestrian provisions, including Crosswalks (or lack thereof), on Shade Avenue between Novus and Bahia Vista, and on School Ave by Payne Park.
School Traffic Zones (restricted speed), including signage and locations. And why SSIS Charter School on School Ave at Bay Street isn't incorporated into a School Zone. !?!
Safer pedestrian provisions, including Crosswalks (or lack thereof), on Shade Avenue between Novus and Bahia Vista, and on School Ave by Payne Park.
New Traffic Signs for Dead-end block of Bay Street off School Ave. Summer 2020 the City kindly provided a big new "No Access to 41" road sign on Bay Street at School Ave, next to the No Outlet and Dead End signs. On this (dead-end) block of Bay Street, since the 2019 closure of School Ave by SHS, every day we get oodles (is that the correct technical term?) of car and truck traffic, trying to find their way to the main road, US41/301/Tamiami Trail, who then have to turn around and double back to School Ave (often at speed, frustrated). Alas, casual observation since sign installations shows little-to-no remediation of issue... Don't people read road signs!?
Speed limit on our residential streets is 25mph
(except lower during certain hours in the school zones). There is little enforcement.
Alta Vista neighborhood residents have expressed concerns, for years (decades), about auto traffic driving too fast on our residential streets. Some speed humps were installed a few years back (particularly around the schools), but they haven't totally solved the problem. With School Ave no longer a thru-street, Wood Street an increasingly-utilized cut-thru for drivers trying to avoid the often-backed-up Bahia Vista Street, new housing developments increasing nearby density, and the ever-increasing car traffic throughout Sarasota, concerns continue, as does work on solving this problem.
(except lower during certain hours in the school zones). There is little enforcement.
Alta Vista neighborhood residents have expressed concerns, for years (decades), about auto traffic driving too fast on our residential streets. Some speed humps were installed a few years back (particularly around the schools), but they haven't totally solved the problem. With School Ave no longer a thru-street, Wood Street an increasingly-utilized cut-thru for drivers trying to avoid the often-backed-up Bahia Vista Street, new housing developments increasing nearby density, and the ever-increasing car traffic throughout Sarasota, concerns continue, as does work on solving this problem.
Signage in Laurel Park neighborhood