A week has passed, and now my No. 1 question about the Bayshore Boulevard/Howard Avenue pedestrian crossing is: What’s the hubbub about?

It’s an intersection I pass through every day, often twice a day, and I have yet to see any major traffic snarls as a result of the new crossing.

I’m sure some readers out there will disagree. One of them, Mike Luetgert of San Nicholas Street, recently sent me an e-mail criticizing the new walkway and subsequent red lights.

Luetgert, who said he travels Bayshore on a daily basis, wrote that he was “against the installation of a light(s), and would sign a petition to have them removed.”

“Bayshore is the only remaining vista Tampa has left, and to purposely create a parking lot (there) is a disaster,” he continued.

But will it be a parking lot? I’ve seen no evidence, as of yet, that the signal change has increased congestion to painful proportions.

Nonetheless, complaints continue to roll in, and I’m keeping watch on the site.

Luetgert argues that the change will not stop people from crossing Bayshore in the middle of blocks or at various street corners.

That’s a good point. I, too, can’t help but wonder whether pedestrians will walk five, six, seven blocks or more out of their way to cross at the light – or will they continue to dodge cars as they’ve always done?

On that, only time can tell for sure. Meanwhile, others profess benefits of the new crossing.

I spoke to Michael Moule of Harbour Island, a Princeton-pedigreed engineer and consultant with some 13 years experience in designing community-friendly roadways. He expressed no doubts that “there has long been a need for signalized crossings on Bayshore.”

“There are folks who aren’t comfortable crossing a road of that volume without signals,” he said.

Moule’s firm, Livable Streets Inc., handles transportation engineering and planning with a specialty in balanced roadways. In other words, making things work for bikers and walkers without degrading a road’s vehicle capacity.

He is also current president of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (www.apbp.org), a professional membership organization that promotes improved conditions for bicycling and walking.

“There will be more delay to northbound traffic on Bayshore just for the time that crosswalk is actually used,” Moule said. “But it won’t affect the capacity in a significant way.”

He feels the real restriction on Bayshore’s capacity is near downtown, where vehicles get trapped in a bottleneck coming toward the convention center.

I’m inclined to agree. The few painful jams I’ve been stuck in on Bayshore generally hit within range of the Platt Street Bridge, northbound.

Both Moule and Luetgert referenced Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, a freeway-like stretch separating downtown Chicago from Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

Luetgert draws a parallel between Lake Shore and Bayshore, asserting that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley would have been “voted out of office” had he placed stoplights on Lake Shore Drive.

Moule, however, cites differences between the two roads, pointing to the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway as the faster-moving urban alternative.

Unfortunately, a street like Bayshore carries an essential paradox.

“From a traffic perspective, putting a road along a waterway makes sense. You don’t have a lot of interruptions because there’s no cross traffic,” Moule explained. “On the other hand, it makes no sense whatsoever, because it creates a barrier between the neighborhood and the amenity. The barrier needs to have some permeability.”

Permeability which may be taking shape in the new crossings and bike lanes planned for northbound Bayshore.

But, for many, doubts still linger.

“This is clearly, in my opinion, a stupid decision which will only cause traffic problems,” Luetgert wrote.

I sincerely hope that’s not the case.