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Neighborhood Report

Traffic calming stalled

The city isn't ready yet to make changes to slow traffic around West Shore and Commerce.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published September 29, 2006

There is a reason why three boulders separate Cookie Robinson's white picket fence from the intersection of West Shore Boulevard and Commerce Street.

Her yellow Victorian home is a bull's-eye for car crashes, triggered by a deadly mix of dim lighting, a curve in the road and speeding drivers.

Five years ago, a man crashed into a tree in her front yard. When the police arrived, he pulled out a gun and police shot and killed him. Robinson cowered in her dining room with her two kids while bullets sprayed her living room.

Two years later, a drunken driver barreled into her yard at 90 mph, took out the picket fence and totaled three cars parked in front of her house.

The following day, she erected a wall of thousand-dollar boulders to protect her home. All she wants now is for the city of Tampa to protect her.

It may take a while.

About a decade ago, the Port Tampa Civic Association asked the city's transportation department to improve the intersections of West Shore and Commerce and West Shore and Interbay Boulevard.

Residents suggested flashing lights. The city proposed a roundabout to slow down traffic.

At a civic association meeting Tuesday, Jim Burnside, of the city transportation department, told neighbors the roundabout idea had fallen through, because other traffic improvements in the area, including the widening of West Shore, had taken financial precedence.

Burnside said the intersections qualified for traffic signals, but more accidents typically happen when signals are installed.

"All we were asking for was a flashing light," said resident Kevin Dwyer.

Transportation officials will discuss traffic calming ideas with Port Tampa residents early next year, Burnside said.

Meanwhile, speeding motorcyclists can't negotiate the curve in the dark, Robinson said. Robinson can't count the number of crashes she's heard in the middle of the night, within feet of her home. Or how many of them were fatalities.

"Too many," she said.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 08:06:23]