Annoying traffic circles' purpose: slower traffic

We hear a lot of complaints from readers about the little traffic circles that are popping up all over St. Petersburg, and we wrote about two new ones a couple of weeks ago.

Specifically, we mentioned a roundabout on 68th Street N at 32nd Avenue and another at 83rd Avenue N and 14th Street. We said we would try to find out from the city's traffic mavens why these obstructions were necessary, and Mike Connors had an answer for us.

They are, as you might have guessed, part of a citywide effort at traffic calming, which is engineer speak for "getting drivers to slow down."

It has been our impression, given the tire tread marks on the sides of these circles, that nearly as many people are driving over them as around them. Whether these overruns are accidental or random acts of defiance we can't say.

Mike swears that the city isn't spending $60,000 on each circle just to annoy drivers, though from the looks of our mail, plenty of you are annoyed. The city approved the two circles above after extensive studies -- done at the request of people who live right there in those neighborhoods -- showed excessive speed and traffic in both places.

"There was a lot of cut-through traffic headed for the (Tyrone Square) mall going down 68th Street and a lot of transient truck traffic, probably making mall deliveries," Mike said. "Four-way stops were being run. They were bad situations."

If we have to put up with these traffic pustules, we hope that the city will at least landscape them. Last we looked, both of the new ones were loaded with weeds, hardly a neighborhood enhancement.

If all goes as scheduled, the Bryan Dairy Road/118th Avenue extension to Interstate 275 will open this week.

Before it opens, we hope the state roadies will correct one serious problem. Motorists coming south on 49th Street who wish to make a left on 118th Avenue to take advantage of the new road must undergo a serious ordeal.

There are two left-turn lanes from southbound 49th Street onto eastbound 118th Avenue, but the left-turn arrows stay green for only five or six seconds. We sat and watched for half an hour one day, and we saw a lot of big, heavy trucks making that turn.

Those guys are slow to get moving, and the turn signal remained green only long enough for one truck to get through legally. Nobody behind them made it. Oh, we saw a lot of people turn behind the trucks, but they were running the red.

Five or six seconds is simply not a long enough window. It isn't long enough now, and it certainly won't be long enough when drivers from north Pinellas, who are commuting to St. Petersburg, learn that the new road is open.

They'll come south across the Bayside Bridge, a road that becomes 49th Street, and make that left as an alternative to negotiating Ulmerton Road's horrendous Miracle Mile.

Come on, Roadies, give us some more turn time. Otherwise, you're just encouraging red-light running, and we know that isn't state policy.

Okay, we take our shots at the state and local road folk, so when somebody has something nice to say, it's only fair that we vent that, as well.

We received a note from Lew Locks of St. Petersburg last week in which he said that he had notified the Mayor's Action Center on Sept. 18 about the sad state of the alley behind his home, an alley where he and many of his neighbors park. The city went out and looked at the situation the next day, and on the day after that notified Lew that the repair work had been ordered.

"Thanks to Thaddeus Mitchell," Lew wrote.

Jessie is quick to add, Huzzah!

What a mess things are over by Snell Isle/Shore Acres, huh? Coffee Pot Boulevard closings for the sea wall work seem to be interminable. Have you noticed the conditions of some of the streets? Sheesh.

Twenty-first Avenue NE, both eastbound and westbound, is horribly potholed between Poplar and Cherry streets. You will be partially protected eastbound on 21st Avenue if there are vehicles parked at the curb because they shield through traffic from the pounding to some extent. But you're doomed if the curb is empty.

Compounding the problem is the fact that this is a major detour route for traffic going around the Coffee Pot Boulevard closures.

Another horrible stretch is on Beach Drive in the southbound lanes between 17th and 15th avenues N. There's a string of potholes big enough to swallow small dogs running right next to the center lane of the roadway, right where the left wheels of your car want to go. The only way to avoid the thumping is to move well to the right.

These two places collectively earn Jessie's Eyeball Jiggler of the Week Award, dubious though it might be.

And now from the files of Dr. Delay's Terrible Traffic Tidbits of the Week we have yet another totally useless information capsule.

The Federal Highway Administration tells us that New York State has the most interstate highway routes in the country, with sections of 28 interstates covering 1,496 miles.

The FHA doesn't tell us where Florida fits in, but Jessie and I can think of only five interstates here, I-275, I-75, I-95, I-4 and I-10. Of course there are spurs here and there, including two in downtown St. Petersburg. But they don't really count.

Oh, well.

Feel free to borrow this information to use and amuse your friends.

-- Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com, by fax at (727) 893-8675 or by snail mail at 490 First Ave., S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

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