In this case, don't bother heading west - you can't
By JEAN HELLER
Published March 21, 2004
Hang on. We're whipping all over the place today.
Had a note from a reader asking how to get onto westbound 118th Avenue N from northbound Interstate 275. The reader had started a trip by turning from eastbound 118th onto southbound I-275 but couldn't get back again.
The short answer is that it can't be done. Not yet. And probably not for quite a few years.
That leg of the mammoth Roosevelt Boulevard interchange project will be just about the final thing to be done, for reasons that escape me, as well as Pinellas County officials. You can go north or south on the interstate from 118th Avenue. You can go west on 118th Avenue from southbound 275. But you can't go west on 118th from northbound I-275.
That part of the project isn't even funded yet.
Color me confounded.
* * *
Had an e-mail from another reader who noted that construction signs remained in the vicinity of the once-notorious rail crossing on 62nd Avenue N just west of 49th Street in Pinellas Park long after the project was finished.
This is not an unusual happenstance. It is the contractor's responsibility to take the signs away, and the workers sometimes take weeks or months to do so.
The signs are gone now, but when I drove through there to check, I noticed that the light for 62nd Avenue traffic is extremely short. I was in the first car on the west side of the new tracks when the light turned green, and I didn't make it through the 49th Street intersection.
For those who've never been there, the tracks aren't more than five or six car lengths from 49th Street, which will give you an idea of how brief the green signal was that it had turned red already when I got to it.
Could the PP roadies check that out, please?
* * *
This is a question that seems a bit bizarre, but I'm going to address it in case anybody else is confused.
A reader asked about what is more or less the T-intersection of First Street NE and Ninth Avenue N. In that area, First Street is two lanes that run one way southbound. The lanes come to an end at Ninth Avenue, where there are stop signs.
South of Ninth Avenue, a smaller version of First Street continues south, but it is offset to the left. To continue down First Street, a driver first has to turn left on Ninth Avenue and then make a quick right onto First Street.
One way or another, the only options for First Street traffic are to turn left or right onto Ninth Avenue.
There is a sign next to First Street's right lane that says, "Right Turn Only." The reader wondered why the right lane had to turn right even though Ninth Avenue is a two-way street.
Hmmmmm.
Can you imagine the potential for chaos if traffic in the right lane was allowed to turn left across traffic turning left from the left lane? Or maybe each lane should be allowed to turn both ways? That would be a boon for auto body shops.
The answer is yes, the right-turn sign means exactly what it says. It is thus at any T-intersection. The right lane turns right, and the left lane turns left.
Period.
* * *
Speaking of offset streets, Lynn Moneck of Clearwater asked us to look at a situation in Pinellas Park where the bright, sparkling, newly redesigned and repaved expanses of U.S. 19 spread forth in black-and-white splendor.
Lynn's problem is the new left-turn lane from northbound 19 onto 102nd Avenue. The mouth of the turn lane is not precisely lined up with the entrance to 102nd, and she feels as if she has to drive north in the southbound lanes of 19 to make the turn.
I don't think it's quite that bad, but clearly you do have to angle north a little. Although it feels strange, it isn't dangerous because it doesn't add a second to the time it takes to get across the southbound lanes.
Just as with everything else that involves U.S. 19, you have to pick your spots, let traffic clear and then make your move quickly.
To paraphrase TV, "Let's be careful out there."
* * *
We haven't had an Eyeball Jiggler of the Week in a while, and we have a doozy for you this time (doozy being a technical traffic engineering term that you don't often get a chance to use).
This one is a Grand Canyon of a hole extending out from the curb as you turn left from First Street N onto Fifth Avenue N.
If you don't see it, you risk blowing out a tire. If you do see it and swerve to avoid it, you risk sliding over into the next lane, right into a vehicle making the left turn with you.
This is one the city should get fixed posthaste.
* * *
Lois Witkowski called an interesting and dangerous situation to our attention. You are on Interstate 175, the spur from I-275 south of downtown St. Petersburg. As you approach Fourth Street S, traffic merges up beside you on the right from a local street.
There are two visible yield signs for the local traffic, intended to stop that traffic when vehicles from I-175 need to move to the right to make the turn southbound onto Fourth Street.
One day recently, I sat and watched for a half hour, and not one merging car heeded those yield signs. Not one. For interstate traffic trying to get into position to make the right turn onto Fourth Street, it was a risky business. The use of horns and brakes soared high above average.
Listen, people. Those bright signs that roadies scatter around are not decorative.
Pay attention!
And come back and see us next week when we will have taken a Valium.
- Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com by fax at 727 893-8675 or by snail mail at P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.
