Residents signal need for stoplight

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 10, 2000

BROOKSVILLE -- To the more than 80 Spring Hill residents who crowded the Hernando County Government Center on Thursday morning, nothing made more sense than placing a traffic signal at Commercial Way and River Country Drive.

Armed with pages of statistics, they said they place their lives into the hands of oncoming drivers every time they try to leave their subdivision and head north on the busy highway. Imagine what would happen if a school bus driver misjudges the traffic speed and turns into a waiting accident, speakers told members of the Hernando County Metropolitan Planning Organization.

"Our main concern is the safety of all using this intersection," said Joe Kouba, president of the River Country Estate Owners Association.

But sensibility had a different definition to people who did not live in the neighborhood, the crowd soon learned. David Buser, District 7 traffic operations engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation, challenged the group's analysis and told the MPO that the data on accidents and traffic volume at the intersection does not warrant a light there.

"It doesn't rise to the level of hazard and it doesn't rise to the level of delay" required by state standards to place a traffic signal at the crossing, Buser said.

Further, he said, the stoplight at Northcliffe Boulevard -- about a quarter-mile away -- creates enough space between cars for drivers leaving River Country to get onto Commercial Way.

People in the audience laughed. "He needs to live in the community," one woman murmured.

Members of the MPO -- county commissioners and a Brooksville City Council member -- stood ready to reject the transportation department's proposed solution of sending drivers south on a feeder road to a light where they can then turn north on Commercial Way. County Commissioner Pat Novy moved to place a light at the intersection, as the neighbors wished.

"Sometimes common sense says things may need to be done even though the statistics don't justify it," Brooksville City Council member Joe Johnston said. "This may be one of those instances."

But DOT District 7 Secretary Ken Hartmann moved quickly to squash the action, saying he would not approve it and suggesting the MPO stay the course on creating a network of frontage roads that feed into Commercial Way.

"I have not heard any discussion about the value of that . . . so we don't have a U.S. 19 here similar to the one we have in Pinellas County," Hartmann said, playing off local fears of the unyielding congestion drivers face two counties to the south.

Conversation then turned to the possibility of extending Beryl Road, a $225,000 feeder road project the County Commission delayed in September. Dennis Dix, county transportation planning coordinator, said the project needs to move ahead quickly in order to succeed. If the county delays much longer, he said, the work could occur after the current Commercial Way expansion ends.

"Then there will be no appropriate signal access for River Country at all," Dix said.

Hartmann said he would support the Beryl Road project and would consider placing a "temporary" way to control traffic during the 12 to 18 months the design and construction would take. He offered no specifics. The MPO said it would investigate all the options and try to make a decision at its next meeting in May.

The community members who attended the session left less than satisfied. A decision -- any decision -- is taking too long for the group of mainly retirees, they said.

"I've got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel," said Gen Cammarata, a member of the River Run Condominium Association.

"I don't see any end of it, because we still have basic differences between our view and the FDOT's view," said Robert Windstrup, an engineer who is leading the community's effort to win a traffic light. "We will seriously meet with the FDOT and resolve these matters on an engineering basis. . . . The best answer will float to the top."

Hartmann agreed, and said he hoped the MPO would take a long-range view toward solving traffic problems.

"We're going to face many of these (situations)," he said. "This isn't the first nor will it be the last discussion of the best way to handle traffic on U.S. 19."

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