Residents persuade a traffic consultant to toughen proposals against fast drivers on County Line.
By BILL COATS
Published April 4, 2004
LUTZ - For Jeff Feil, County Line Road near his house is "a perfect late-night drag strip."
Feil and his neighbors aim to slow down the traffic along County Line, which has become increasingly thick with speeders in recent years. Last week, they persuaded a Hillsborough County traffic consultant to toughen his proposals against speeders on that road.
Consequently, consultant Angelo Rao said he will suggest that three intersections along County Line between U.S. 41 and N Dale Mabry Highway be raised 31/2 inches. Rao had come to the meeting Wednesday night, at Lutz Elementary School, proposing to raise only the intersection with Deer Lake Road.
Motorists crossing such intersections would traverse a 6-foot ramp each way and would feel an uncomfortable bump if they did so driving faster than 30 mph, Rao said. County Line's speed limit is 35 mph, and the recommended speed across a raised intersection is 20.
That's milder than the jolt from speed humps or speed tables. County Line, with nearly 7,200 vehicles a day, is too busy for humps or tables, Rao said.
He said the road doesn't have the traffic statistics to merit three-way stop signs at Deer Lake, the most popular idea among the 35 neighbors who turned out Wednesday.
"Unfortunately," Rao said, "the . . . numbers don't come close to providing a stop."
But Rao proposed a handful of lesser changes that the residents supported. Besides the raised intersections, Rao said he would recommend that Hillsborough County:
* Install two electric "speed awareness signs" that tell each driver how fast the vehicle is moving.
* "Refresh" the road's striping.
* Add white stripes along the road's edges, creating the illusion of a more narrow road, which "forces motorists to take it down a couple of miles an hour," Rao said.
* Check the feasibility of adding a left-turn signal to the traffic light where eastbound drivers turn north onto U.S. 41.
* Create bricklike coloring and imprints in the pavement of the raised intersections.
The arrow-straight stretch of County Line has long been speed prone. But neighbors' worries heightened three years ago with the opening of Pasco County's Willow Bend Parkway, which created unbroken access between Collier Parkway and County Line at U.S. 41.
"I've seen the traffic basically triple in the last couple of years, particularly since they opened the cut to Collier Parkway," said Ed Cutchen, who has lived there for about 30 years.
Cutchen argued that more intersections than the one at Deer Lake should be raised.
"I think you need one to the east and one to the west of that," he said. "I don't think one alone would do any good at all."
Rao sought a show of hands, and nearly three-fourths of the audience agreed. So Rao proposed another raised intersection at Long Leaf Drive and a third at a point to be determined near the Dale Mabry intersection.
The proposals still face several hurdles. County engineers can change them. Then the package must be supported by petition signatures among about 70 percent of all property owners in the Hillsborough neighborhoods that feed onto County Line. If that happens, the proposals go to the Hillsborough County Commission.
