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Neighborhood Report

Commute about to get bumpier for speed demons

Crystal Lake Road is about to get five speed barriers to add teeth-rattling clarity to speed limit signs.

By ELIZABETH MILLER
Published January 19, 2007

As Anthony Mooney gets his mail, cars speed down his residential Lutz road. He waves his arm at one guy, motioning for him to slow down.

The driver more than slows down. He stops and yells at Mooney through his open window. Talk about road rage.

Mooney is dismissive. He has been beeped at and yelled at, as well as complimented by some neighbors for the sign in his front yard that reads "Speed limit 25. This is not I-4."

"Since they've had that through-road, it's like an interstate in front of my house," said Mooney, 50, who has lived here seven years.

Ever since the road at the new Idlewild Baptist Church campus connected N Dale Mabry to the winding Lutz back roads, opening up a more direct access to U.S. 41, residents of Crystal Lake Road and other area roads have been desperate to make traffic slow down.

"I've done everything but wave a checkered flag," Mooney said.

Mooney, however, is on the verge of gaining help that drivers cannot ignore.

Hillsborough County plans within a month and a half to install five speed barriers on Crystal Lake Road. Each will be 31/2 inches high, and one will sit a stone's throw west of Mooney's driveway.

"We're just waiting for the detailed plan from the engineers," said Buz Barbour, manager of the county's traffic calming program. "It should be done very rapidly once they start the work."

Speed tables and speed cushions should be installed first on nearby Crenshaw Lake Road . Two of the speed barriers are planned before and after each S-curve, for a total of eight, aiming to slow traffic to 15 mph in some spots.

All plans have been approved for that road, and work should begin within the next 30 days, Barbour said.

The plans emerged from a year of county meetings and petitions after Idlewild opened in October 2005.

Contrary to some residents' belief that Exciting Idlewild Boulevard was to be open only during church functions, it now is a county-owned road that will remain open to the public. Rush-hour commuters are using it as a new east-west alternative.

When Mooney drives on it, and stays within the 25 mph speed limit, traffic stacks up behind him.

He said his and others' mailboxes are close to the road. Still, drivers race past.

"They don't even slow down when they see you," he said. "I've literally had to run out of the road to get out of the way."

[Last modified January 18, 2007, 08:01:44]