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Okay, we've been bouncing through the county, and what we have found are a lot of impatient readers.
We heard from one lady who thinks the light for northbound and southbound traffic on Ridge Road at Park Boulevard is too doggoned long. She said that sometimes drivers have to sit and wait for five minutes to get a green, resulting in people moving from lane to lane to find a way to jump the light.
She has even resorted, she said, to making a right turn on red from Ridge onto westbound Park, driving a block, making a U-turn and coming back through the intersection on Park while east-west traffic still had a green light.
It took us a while, but we finally got over that way to take a look. We timed the light on Ridge Road, and it stayed red for two minutes, 15 seconds. Perhaps the problem has been resolved since the writer asked her question. But the time did not seem excessive to us.
For one thing, most of Ridge Road north of Park is closed for construction, so there isn't a lot of traffic trying to access Park, at least not from the north side.
In the time we sat there waiting for a green signal, only two other cars pulled up, and one of them did exactly what the reader does. The driver turned right on red on to Park and then made a U-turn and came back.
As long as that's legal, go for it.
Another reader complained about the timing of the lights at Park Boulevard and 49th Street for traffic southbound on 49th, particularly in the left-turn lanes.
We timed those turn signals, too, and they remained red for two minutes, 50 seconds. That didn't seem excessive to us, either, given how busy the two roads are.
What did seem ludicrous was the very brief interval that the left-turn signals remained green. The reader estimated that only three cars from each of the two turn lanes could get through on a single green, and we found this to be pretty close to accurate.
Even at 11 a.m., when we were there, the green turn signals didn't come close to clearing the traffic in the two turn lanes. Just two or three more seconds would help enormously.
I've also got to wonder if the traffic light that controls vehicles turning north on U.S. 19 from eastbound Park Boulevard is timed correctly. A little after 11 in the morning, we were stopped for the first time about halfway along the Park Boulevard ramp that becomes Gandy Boulevard on the far side of 19.
From there, it took three cycles of the light for us to get through it. It used to be that we could get through on one cycle from about the same starting point.
What's up with that?
Now, a pet peeve of mine.
I was sitting recently at 54th Avenue N and Alt. U.S. 19 and couldn't figure out where I was. There was one small Alt. U.S. 19 sign hung on a concrete post on the far side of the intersection from where I had stopped. I have pretty good eyesight, and it took me 20 seconds even to spot the sign, a bit longer to make out what it said.
Another intersection with the same problem is Park Boulevard where Park Street runs south and Starkey Road runs north. The street sign is on the side of the road, largely obscured by a big post, and there is no sign in the intersection itself.
Why, oh, why, can't all the roadies understand that street signs need to be large, in the center of the intersections and attached to the traffic signal supports? The absolutely perfect sign is at Roosevelt Boulevard and 28th Street N. It is large and legible and at night it is lighted.
Perhaps it would be too expensive to mount that sort of sign at every controlled intersection, but it would be nice. Heck, it would be nice just to have big signs of any kind at these places.
And it would be nicer still if more intersections were forecast in advance with signs that say, for example, "66th Street N Next Signal."
The use of all these advanced signage techniques is very spotty around Pinellas County. I can't believe it would take a ransom in diamonds to fix the deficiencies.
An Eyeball Jiggler of the Week that is no more.
A seriously depressed (in position, not mood) manhole cover in the center lane of 118th Avenue N, east of 49th Street N, now has a swell new asphalt collar around it.
What used to be a tire trap that could break the steel belts on a Michelin is now glass-like.
Gratitude is seeping out of every pore.
Bear Creek flows under 64th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues S.
Going north on 64th Street the road is fine, but you can see that it has been heavily patched.
Going south, the road has a major sinkage problem. We have no idea why, or how serious the problem is. We also have no idea why both sides of the street weren't fixed at the same time.
But we urge the Powers That Be (PTBs) to hustle on over and take a look.
More next week, dears.
- 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.