Let’s start with the ‘good’
I was floored the other day when I pulled out of my south Summerfield neighborhood to find a traffic light at the corner of Summerfield Boulevard and Big Bend Road.
Oh, I knew it was coming – eventually.
The county had promised to put up a temporary signal while working on getting us a permanent one.
But so soon? The temporary signal is up about three months ahead of schedule and it seemed to go up in a single day. Thinking back, I remembered I had noticed a new “electrical-looking box” on one of the intersection’s corners a few days before.
And then suddenly, there it was. Our beautiful signal light.
Those of you, who, like me, must access that intersection (especially going west) between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m. and again during the hours between 4:40 and 7 p.m., know just how welcome this traffic signal is.
Instead of four-to-six cars sitting helter-skelter in the median, each pointing its nose in a different direction as long lines wait at all four corners of the intersection, waiting for a light to change is a comparative pleasure. At least now we know, as that 1962 classic ballad says: that “Our Day Will Come.”
I was floored again when I received two letters crediting Road Raves with the installation of the light.
“Your continuous efforts have paid off!” writes Doris Karnes of Riverview. “The light at Big Bend Road and Summerfield Boulevard is a direct result of your diligence. Like you, I had to drive up Big Bend every day and do a U-turn to get out. Thank you for following this through.”
Other compliments followed – enough that I felt like all those calls to county traffic engineers had really made a difference.
And that’s great, because most times I feel like I’m banging my head against a stone wall. People write in their complaints; I make dozens of telephone calls; get partial or incomplete answers, and then get more reader letters ripping me apart for something I’ve written based on the answers I’ve received from the powers that be.
So thank you again, Doris, for your encouraging letter.
The second complimentary letter-writer is going to remain anonymous. That’s my choice because he was so proud of a result obtained after calls to the county for this column that he said he wanted to start a fan club. (I did say no.) But to think some of the editors at our sister publications didn’t like the idea of writing about traffic every week!
Now for the ‘bad’
Some residents say the new median and one-way signs at the intersection of First Street Southwest, 14th Avenue and U.S. 41 in Ruskin are creating a lot of problems.
In other words, they say the recent changes are “bad.”
But if county transportation officials are correct in their planning, what residents are complaining about could someday become a life-saver.
The problem now occurring with the median is two-fold, as you can see from the two photographs accompanying this column.
Drivers can no longer turn west onto U.S. 41 from 14th Avenue and drivers turning off U.S. 41 must now make a quick decision as to which path to take or hit a stone median.
The new median forces one-ways that don’t seem to make any sense. There has been a perfectly good traffic light at that intersection for at least 10 years. You could arrive at it from either one of the intersecting streets. Then, as you approached U.S. 41, you could do what we all learned in kindergarten – look to the right; look to the left – and the proceed with caution into whichever turn lane you needed, depending upon whether you were heading east or west.
Now, traveling from 14th Avenue, you must turn east. And from First Street Southwest, you must turn west. You have no other options. That’s just the way it is.
Bob Campbell, chief of transportation planning for the county, says someday, this will be a help to residents.
“When all the new development comes in, cars will be lined up along 14th Avenue and without the median, there was too much potential for right-angle or front-end collisions, which are extremely dangerous,” he said. “That median is for public safety. Without it, people trying to access (U.S.) 41 from First Street could try and force their way into the line between cars (coming off 14th) and be seriously injured or killed.”
Although residents say they are inconvenienced by this situation now and some are even making U-turns (actually it takes more than one try as the street is so narrow) around the extension of the median on 14th Avenue, Campbell says residents will be glad it’s there when all the new homes are finished and the thousands of new residents move into that area.
The median was a condition of permitting the new River Bend development in the area, Campbell said. But not just because of that development. The county takes all the new developments into account, and when a road looks like it will become stressed with another one, the requirement kicks in.
River Bend just happened to request a permit at that time.
“River Bend paid for all the improvements,” he said. “But they certainly won’t be the only ones using them.”
The project is far from finished.
When it is completed, Campbell said, there will be a turn lane for each direction – both north and south – onto U.S. 41 from 14th Avenue, while people exiting First Street will still have to go north, he said.
Another part of the project is the extension of the left-hand turn lane from U.S. 41 onto First Street, which is now completed except for painting the lines and arrows, he said.
And last but not least,
the ‘ugly’
Ken Bauer of Hawaiian Isles in Ruskin writes that despite a crew of workers picking up loads of trash last month along U.S. 41 between Cockroach Bay Road and the Little Manatee River Bridge, that roadway is again full of bags, papers, tires and garbage.
“It’s all in the median and on both shoulders of the road,” Ken writes. “Don’t people care? It only takes a small plastic bag in the car to hold any trash which can be removed from the car when the people exit.”
Well Ken, I agree with you. I often have my 8-year-old and several of my grandchildren (funny to have a daughter younger than any of your grandchildren!) packed in my ‘95 Saturn eating and drinking a variety of snacks on the way to and from the many places we go.
Our rule is “if the birds can’t eat it, don’t throw it out.” And that pretty much limits our window-trash to sandwich crusts.
u Thank you all for your letters. Keep sending your questions and concerns to me at 3032 College Ave., Ruskin, FL 33570 or e-mail them to with “Road Raves” in the subject line. Please notice that is a new address.

Penny Fletcher is the editor of The Sun and the South Shore News.