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Lake–Sumter MPO outlines 2050 plan, unveils TIP dashboard and Vision Zero safety tool
Summary
Mike Woods, director of the Lake–Sumter MPO, presented the adopted 2050 long-range transportation plan, a new interactive Transportation Improvement Program dashboard and a Vision Zero safety action plan that uses UCF crash analysis; commissioners pressed staff about priorities for US 27 and local funding to accelerate projects.
Mike Woods, director of the Lake–Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization, told the Leesburg City Commission on March 23 that the MPO adopted its 2050 long-range transportation plan in December and has begun a 2026 call for projects to implement it. “Our TIP is our 5‑year funded program. Right now, it’s about $1.5 billion for the next 5 years,” Woods said, describing a new interactive Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) dashboard and a Vision Zero safety action tool developed with the University of Central Florida to target fatal and serious‑injury crashes.
The presentation described a shift in revenue sources since the MPO’s last update: a large reduction in state funding and an increase in federal funding, along with a new $2.5 million per‑year transportation‑alternative fund for pedestrian, bicycle and safety projects. Woods warned that projects using federal dollars often require additional federal‑compliant design and environmental work before construction, which can slow delivery on county roads.
Commissioners pressed Woods about why corridors including US 441 and US 27 do not appear earlier in the funding schedule. Woods said some “legacy” projects remain on the MPO list but that the MPO prioritized the top projects it believed could be funded; he urged local partnerships and, when appropriate, local funding to advance projects sooner. He also noted the MPO’s traffic forecast model is a year behind schedule, which limited the MPO’s ability to fully reassess priorities before the plan was adopted.
On safety, Woods outlined the Vision Zero analysis of 10‑ and 5‑year crash data. He said fatal and serious injury crashes account for about 4.4% of total crashes in Lake and Sumter counties, higher than several comparators, and that four crash types — run‑off‑road, left‑turn, rear‑end and angle crashes — account for roughly 85% of serious incidents. The Vision Zero dashboard will combine congestion and safety data to identify a high‑injury network and recommend corridor‑, segment‑ and intersection‑level countermeasures.
Woods demonstrated the TIP dashboard’s mapping and project list features and said staff open a call for applications each January, with a draft program in April and final adoption in June. He encouraged commissioners to use the dashboard to track projects in the city’s area and to bring local dollars to the table to accelerate priority work.
The presentation prompted local officials to press for attention to the south‑Leesburg corridor along US 27, where commissioners and residents described recurring peak‑hour congestion and long left‑turn delays. Woods and staff recommended technology and signal upgrades as near‑term fixes where widening is constrained and noted some capacity projects will require state and federal design phases before construction.
Next steps: the MPO will field the call for projects through March, present draft materials to boards in April and return in June with final adoption actions and a proposed resolution to set available TIP allocations.
