During the University of South Florida (USF) Fall 2019 semester, the Manatee County Transportation Planning office requested that the graduate students of URP 6711 Multimodal Transportation Planning determine multimodal improvements along three high priority county corridors. Two main components of the Manatee County Long Range Transportation Plan are an emphasis on advancing complete streets and expanding multimodal options. In order to advance non-auto modes of transportation, the County plans to provide residents with an organized, safe, and efficiently connected multimodal network of mobility options. The County used socioeconomic information, crash data, potential points of interest, and transit route alignments and ridership to identify Lockwood Ridge Road Corridor, 26th Avenue East, and 53rd Avenue West as some of the high priority corridors in need of analysis and adjustment.
The goal of this report was to assess the conditions of these high priority corridors and to recommend ways that Manatee County can improve the multimodal capabilities of the corridors, while also providing bicyclists and pedestrians a safe, efficient, and more livable environment. Street design concepts were prepared using streetmix software and analysis was conducted using a variety of data sources and guidance documents. Below are just a few of the recommendations in the report. Users are referred to the respective section for further details and design concepts for each of the corridors.