Sarasota

No surprise that April 2008 average daily SCAT ridership was up 14 percent over April 2007. Guess the high gas prices have lots to do with that. But the expansion of services has also helped. More frequent service makes the system better.

Read more here

Among the new services or schedule changes taking effect June 14 are:

Harold Bubil is the real estate reporter for the Sarasota Herald Tribune -- in this essay he asks how we put our thoughts and desires to be sustainable into action. There are lots of small things we all can and need to do.

But the big things are the ones a person can't do on their own. Urban design, utility systems and transportation options are big, expensive complicated issues that we need to tackle as a society on the local, regional, national and planet scales.

Urban design plays a very important role in transportation issues. To support transit options you need a certain level of density to make it work.

Old school ideas like "concurrency" just don't really help -- they are one dimensional just like single use zoning and one way streets..

Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter KEVIN L. MCQUAID wrote this story ...

On May 10th 2008 after living in Sarasota for 18 years I took my first ride on a scheduled SCAT bus. I went from Sarasota Memorial Hospital south to the end of the line - the Venice Train Station and then back home.

Pictures to follow...