The ink was scarcely dry on last week’s Traffic Stop column when I discovered the light at South Dale Mabry Highway and Ballast Point Boulevard had been lit, at long last.

These are the drawbacks of a Friday deadline, but I was more pleased about the progress than I was concerned about the timing of my column.

Throughout the past week, I received a lot of mail – mostly the electronic kind – from readers celebrating this traffic triumph. They also questioned current road conditions and championed our ongoing investigations.

Here’s a glimpse into what they had to say.



Power of the people

My Dec. 14 column mentioned an article written by former South Tampa News editor Jennifer Howell at the end of 2004, in which she cited a Home Depot spokesman who said the aforementioned South Dale Mabry traffic light was “expected to take eight to 10 weeks to install.”

Sometimes 10 weeks reads as 12 months on a loose city timeline.

One reader named Alice wrote in to explain that lobbying for the light began well before that, in 2003. That’s when Alice got into a serious car accident at the site outside the home-improvement store.

A week after her accident, a man on a motorcycle was killed at that same location. Prior to that, another South Tampa woman died there.

“There are so many accidents at the site that the city of Tampa police department leaves a tow truck on permanent call there,” Alice wrote in her recent e-mail.

She also explained Howell was “instrumental in asking readers to call the city if they had concerns with the intersection.”

“The city of Tampa, at that point, denied there was a problem,” Alice wrote.

She said they were quickly overwhelmed with phone calls, and lobbied by both the Gandy and Golfview civic associations.

It may have taken a long time for the traffic signal to come into being, but this is still an excellent example of the power unified voices can wield.



Taking matters in hand

After reading my take on the cracked up intersection of MacDill Avenue and Azeele Street, Jerry Jennings expressed support for investigating the “deplorable condition of many of our Tampa roadways.”

Formerly of Atlanta, Jennings wrote via e-mail that he finds it “very difficult to understand how the surface and turning conditions can be tolerated by a tax-paying public that certainly deserves better for the cost of living here.”

I’ve wondered that myself. I suppose we sometimes get complacent, perhaps, or feel powerless to change things. It may take patience and time, and it may extract a good deal of frustration from our pores, but change is possible.

Got a major roadway problem in your neighborhood? Contact the city of Tampa Transportation Department at 274-8333 and tell them what’s going on.



The safety mantra

South Tampa News reader Marvin Pitts placed additional responsibility in the hands that grip the steering wheel, writing in to say that if more motorists would indulge in “driving and driving alone when behind the wheel, the roadway conditions would become secondary.”

A valid point. It’s true that most drivers could stand to be more cautious, pay more attention and use an extra dash of common sense on the road.

I’ll start with me. You start with you. We’ll go from there.

More roadwork ahead

The first step is now under way in an initiative to convert several downtown streets from one-way to two-way thoroughfares.

Through the initiative, traffic flow on east-to-west oriented streets from Ashley Drive to Pierce Street will all be changed during the next five years to run two ways.

Madison Street is first on the conversion list. It was milled and repaved in November. City of Tampa Transportation estimates Madison Street project costs at $810,000. When finished, it and other east/west streets will feature decorative crosswalks and emphasize pedestrian accessibility at five major intersections.

Other improvements listed in the project include adding timed pedestrian signals, replacing traffic signs and repainting pavement markings.

Two of the northern lanes on Madison Street closed for construction as of Dec. 12. This first phase is expected to be complete in March 2006.

Send rants and raves about South Tampa traffic to Mitzi Gordon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).. To read more about local roadways or review past columns, go to TBO.com Keyword: Traffic.