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Repaving set to coincide with 2008 pipeline work

By LORRIE LYKINS
Published January 21, 2007

Folks in Seminole are increasingly concerned with the condition of north-south Duhme Road between the Madeira Beach Causeway and 54th Avenue N and understandably so. The road is a minefield of ruts, potholes and patches.

The good news is that the county has plans to repave the road. The not-so-good news is that the fix is scheduled for fiscal year 2008, Pete Yauch, the county's director of transportation, said last week.

The repaving will be combined with a utility project to install pipes to run reclaimed water. No sense in repaving the road now when it will be torn up in 2008.

Yauch said that since we're already three months into the county's 2007 fiscal year, he expects the Duhme Road improvement to be under way about a year from now.

WALSINGHAM ROAD

Make sure you yield when turning on Gulf

Here's a followup to a recent reader question regarding the yield sign at the corner of Walsingham Road where it ends at Gulf Boulevard. The reader asks why the yield sign was there, since there is no eastbound traffic to yield to at that point.

Kevin Dunn, manager of signing and pavement markings for the Florida Department of Transportation, said that the westbound right turn lane is what the highway department calls a "free-flowing" right turn. Free-flowing turns are usually adjacent to a triangular-shaped raised island with no stop bar across the right turn lane.

"Since the right turn movement does not have its own lane to feed into, that is the purpose of the yield sign i.e. when northbound traffic has the green signal, the westbound right turn movement has to yield," Dunn wrote

U.S. 19 TRAFFIC SIGNALS

Signals being updated as new ones installed

If the timing of the traffic signals along U.S. 19 is driving you nuts, rest assured, the folks managing the signals are aware of your angst.

Ken Jacobs, traffic signal operations manager for the county, said that adjustments are being made as signals are added to the new signal management software.

SHARING WITH CYCLISTS

If there isn't 3 feet of clearance, what to do?

The Doc is a supporter of sharing the road with cyclists.

But to do so safely and effectively means that everyone on the road needs to be aware of the lanes they are traveling. The new bike law requiring motorists to give cyclists 3 feet of clearance has spurred many e-mails. One reader wrote that she is happy to yield that 3 feet, but wonders about the responsibility of the bicyclists.

She wrote: "How do we get the cyclers to ride inside the bike lanes instead of in the traffic lane?

"Last week there were about 10 of them northbound on Third Street (in St. Petersburg) at rush hour - just as businesses and USF were getting out - traffic fairly heavy in both directions, and there they were, three-abreast, only one actually in the designated lane.

"If a driver had attempted to obey the clearance law, he would have been driving into oncoming traffic. So how is this supposed to work?"

Good point. Cyclers?

Please share your traffic concerns, comments and questions with Dr. Delay via e-mail at docdelay@yahoo.com.

[Last modified January 21, 2007, 00:31:18]