Sarasota Livin'

If you want the Sarasota County Area Transit site go here

Growth is happening ... more people and more cars are real. We need to be working on solutions. Part of that is better urban design... and a very important part is a better mass transit system.

It's good to know that Sarasota County (which us city residents pay our fair share of taxes to) is working on improving the bus system.

South county Sun-Herald has a story on recent upgrades to the SCAT bus system schedule..

Alan Hoffman, a consultant for SCAT with The Mission Group, told commissioners that they need to look at their transit system in a different way, and it should be done in three phases.

The first phase would be to reinforce the existing system.

Sarah Blanchard, of county Public Works and SCAT, said Stage No. 1 of the future growth will begin by March and include more frequent bus service on U.S. 41 between the city of Sarasota and Manatee County.

....

SCAT officials expect the changes to increase ridership by as much as 25 percent in the coming years.

SCAT currently averages 1.8 million riders each year with the goal, 2.25 million.