How do you reach this Florida beach with a parking crunch? There’s a way around that
County leaders are looking for any relief they can find to Anna Maria Island’s worsening traffic and a shortage of beach parking.
Manatee County’s Coquina Beach parking lot project, which is nearing completion, will provide an estimated 1,000 parking spaces, the single largest concentration of visitor parking on Anna Maria Island.
In conjunction with the parking project, plans are underway to renovate the Coquina Beach Trail, an eight-foot wide asphalt trail running 1 1/2 miles along the beachfront.
Manatee County Tourist Development Council members are interested in learning whether it might be feasible to add a parallel trail at Coquina Beach.
The proposed trail could be used for a possible jitney service — a type of golf cart — to transport beachgoers up and down the beach.
The licensed carts could carry up to six passengers. But that’s not to say that just any golf cart could use the proposed trail.
Manatee considers beach ride service
The proposed jitney service could also serve water taxi passengers, said Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The county’s planned water taxi service could start as early as July, including a stop at Coquina Beach.
“The bottom line is Coquina Beach is where a lot of our visitors will be able to use the beach,” said County Commissioner James Satcher, who chairs the tourist development council.
County staff is expected to do more research on a possible jitney trail and bring it back to the tourism board.
The Florida Department of Transportation estimates that between 2017 and 2021, traffic on Anna Maria Island’s Gulf Drive from Cortez Road north to Manatee Avenue increased from 9,500 cars a day to 11,200. Figures for 2022 are not available.
Coquina Trail project
Cost: The Coquina Trail project is estimated to cost $1.5 million, take eight months to complete and require the removal of 96 Australian pines, which are damaging the trail.
Trees: The Australian pines would be replaced with black olive and other types of trees.
Parking lot: Approximately 200 Australian pines were removed for the Coquina Beach parking lot project.
This story was originally published April 25, 2023 at 9:30 AM.
