A reader wrote to say she had heard that Pinellas Point Drive S - the stretch between Interstate 275 and Roy Hanna Drive - was scheduled to get some landscaped medians to help narrow the road.
As this reader described it, drivers try to pass one another as if it were a multilane road and feel free to speed because the road is so wide.
The city of St. Petersburg agrees. Traffic and road guru Mike Connors tells us that medians are scheduled to go in on Pinellas Point Drive S, particularly in the area of 31st Street, this summer. The exact dates haven't been set yet, but they are on the way.
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Scooting north, we find a problem at 34th Street N and 118th Avenue. It is a situation created by the connection of Bryan Dairy Road and 118th Avenue to form a new cross-county route to the interstate.
The traffic on both 34th Street and 118th Avenue has grown with the opening of the new ramps onto I-275 northbound and southbound, and backups can be extensive at the intersection of the two streets.
Traffic southbound on 34th Street must find a way through the traffic westbound on 118th Avenue and then sit at the stop sign in the median of 118th Avenue waiting for an opening to turn into eastbound traffic. Those openings can be few and far between.
If a driver rolling across the median sees an opening in westbound traffic and takes it without coming to a full and complete stop, he is breaking the law. But if the driver does stop, he risks losing the opening and cars back up behind him.
A simple solution would be to replace the stop sign in the median with a yield sign. This would confirm to drivers in the median that eastbound 118th Avenue traffic has the right of way. But it would allow more cars from 34th Street to merge into traffic at each opportunity because they wouldn't be required to come to a full stop first.
The line of sight is very good, so there shouldn't be any issues about seeing oncoming traffic.
How about it, Roadies?
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Every year, it seems, there is a big debate in the Legislature about passing a primary seat belt enforcement law in Florida. Florida has long had secondary seat belt enforcement, but this requires that an officer or trooper pull over an offender for some other violation, such as speeding or reckless driving, before citing him for failure to use a seat belt.
In other words, a driver can't be pulled over only because of a failure to use a seat belt.
We were sent some statistics compiled by a group called Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, of Washington, D.C., which bring home pretty graphically how big a difference it would make in Florida to have a primary seat belt enforcement law.
For example, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 20,425 people died in Florida in traffic accidents from 1996 to 2002. That's equal to the entire population of Lealman or Tarpon Springs.
Of those 20,425 dead people, 9,623 weren't wearing seat belts.
If everyone had been wearing seat belts, 4,330 of those people would have lived, according to the Meharry-State Farm Alliance Report.
Scary, isn't it?
Despite facts like these, the traffic safety administration found that seat belt use in Florida actually is declining, from 75.1 percent in 2002 to 72.6 percent in 2003.
If Florida had a primary seat belt enforcement law, the NHTSA estimates that usage would have risen to 82.6 percent in 2002 and 87.6 percent in 2003.
If that isn't enough to get you to write to your legislators, the NHTSA found that the cost of motor vehicle crashes in Florida in 2000 - and this includes lost wages, insurance, disability costs and other measures - was $14.4-billion.
Now write to somebody and get Florida's law fixed.
And wear your seat belts on the way to the post office.
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Things we would change if we ruled the world:
Interstate entrance ramps would be longer, to make merging into traffic easier and safer.
Cases in point:
Merging onto northbound I-275 from 38th Avenue N. The merge lane is very short, which makes it difficult to get up to highway speeds to make the merge. In fact, during rush hour, many vehicles have to stop and wait for openings, so they are merging from 0 mph. Not good.
Entering I-275 southbound from the aforementioned new ramp from 118th Avenue N. Again, the ramp is impossibly short and if you can merge at all, you're in a lane that quickly becomes an exit-only lane, meaning that you have to rush to move left a second time.
Entering I-275 southbound from Gandy Boulevard, ditto.
Yikes!
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Here are road closures you should know about. These are all in north county, but I'm betting that some of you venture up there now and again.
Sunset Point Road will be closed on both sides of U.S. 19 from Feb. 11 to Feb. 14.
NE Coachman Road will be closed on both sides of U.S. 19 from Feb. 18 to Feb 21.
Neither closure will affect U.S. 19 traffic.
In one day, work will begin on the rail crossing on Enterprise Road between McMullen Booth Road and the Philippe Parkway. This will close Enterprise at the crossing for three weeks.
Sheesh.
- 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 33701.
