City council is holding a public groundbreaking ceremony for the project Jan. 24 at 10:30 a.m. The starting location hasn’t been revealed yet, but I’m sure that will get settled soon.

Area residents can expect some headaches and snarls, but that comes with the territory of major construction work. In the long run, I’m guessing most of them will breathe sighs of relief as traffic lightens along Manhattan and its side streets.

In other road news, City Councilman John Dingfelder sent me a note about the council’s recent vote to fund an engineering study for the intersection of Dale Mabry Highway and Kennedy Boulevard.

The crossing has needed attention for a while now. Back in June, a peek at the city’s “Top 100” list of high-incident traffic-crash locations revealed 16 South Tampa intersections making the charts. Most of them radiated out in cross formation from an epicenter at Dale Mabry and Kennedy.

At the time, that intersection ranked No. 39 on the list, with 12 crashes in a 90-day period. I speculated many of them were left-turn fiascos, based solely on personal experience.

Fast-forward six months and things haven’t changed much. As of Jan. 6, the Dale Mabry/Kennedy intersection was up to No. 31 on the charts, but logged fewer accidents – 11 crashes in 90 days. Guess that means we’re having slightly fewer crashes overall.

The engineering study is a welcome step toward improvement. In his e-mail, Dingfelder explained the plan: to work with the Florida Department of Transportation to add an additional northbound lane on Dale Mabry “to assist traffic getting through that miserable spot.”

The city hopes this will not only help motorists and increase safety, but also might lessen neighborhood cut-through traffic in the area. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.



From the desk of Mayor Pam
Right before the New Year, I also received an e-mail from Mayor Pam Iorio, who made my day by telling me she regularly enjoys this column.

She was very gracious in addressing some of my more cynical quips about the state of Tampa’s streets, and she shed light on the future of basic roadway improvements.

Rather than paraphrase, I’m going to fully reproduce a portion of her well-put message below. It strengthened my confidence that Tampa is on the right path. I hope it does the same for you:



Dear Mitzi,

When I first became mayor, I was surprised to learn how little the city spent on basic road improvements. The budget in 2003 for street resurfacing, sign replacement, sidewalks and traffic calming was $2.6 million.

Since then we have embarked on a program called “Investing in Neighborhoods.” Each year we put more money into those basic areas I mentioned above. In the last budget adopted in October, we allocated $5.5 million.

Of that amount, $2.3 (million) goes for street resurfacing – not nearly enough. We have 2,600 miles of roadway and only address about 2.3 percent of our total roadways every year. To add a further challenge, material costs have gone up dramatically.

Our new transportation director, Roy LaMotte, spends a lot of time at neighborhood meetings addressing concerns, but we want to be realistic about what can be accomplished given the limitations of the budget. 

However, I have given clear direction to our transportation and budgeting departments – that as long as I am mayor, I want to see the amount devoted to basic roadway improvements increase each budget year.

This is an important part of what makes a quality city.

Thanks for bringing issues to our attention and we will continue to work to address them.

Sincerely,

Pam



Send rants and raves about South Tampa traffic to Mitzi Gordon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

* Back in August, part of Bayshore Boulevard caved in after leaky joints in an underground stormwater culvert box loosened dirt below the road’s surface. The road was shut down for a few days while crews worked on repairs. Shortly thereafter, drivers resumed their usual cruising velocities along the boulevard.
A new electronic sign that racks and posts speeds of passing cars provided some deterrent to those inclined to abuse the limit.

* Walking signals on several downtown crosswalks get spiffed up with timers. Pedestrians now know exactly how many seconds remain until a maniacally speeding motorist tries to mow them over.



* Continued construction to Interstate 275 shut down an exit to Ashley Street, but no one in South Tampa noticed, because the intersection in question lay north of Kennedy Boulevard.



* Yet another wastewater cave-in struck in the fall, this time along the center lane of Platt Street, closing the thoroughfare from Plant Avenue east to Bayshore Boulevard. City workers keep putting out the proverbial fires as I spin gags about the 50-year-old pipes needing some reconstructive surgery.



* The long-sought-after traffic light at South Dale Mabry Highway and Ballast Point Boulevard was finally installed and, after a tense waiting period, was also lit. Residents breathed sighs of relief in anticipation of fewer fatal accidents.



* Resurfacing began on the western stretch of Bay to Bay Boulevard, well known for being riddled with eye-jiggling potholes. Unfortunately, the first step in resurfacing is to remove surface asphalt and score the road’s surface – so things get a little worse before they get better. Hang in there.



And so, several improvements are under way at last, but recent studies don’t speak well of local road conditions. A city audit listed more than 100 Tampa streets as being in such poor shape parts of them are barely adequate for travel.

The widening of Manhattan Avenue and improvements to the intersection of MacDill Avenue and Azeele Street are among projects expected to begin in early 2006.

Looking around at the state of our streets, and taking that audit into consideration, I’m guessing that’s going to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Until then, have a safe New Year.



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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.

A phone call came through from the city last week. Thomas Catell, chief project designer, said plans for the MacDill/Azeele project are complete and ready to go. The intersection is slated to receive left-turn lanes (but no corresponding arrow traffic signals) in all four directions.

Of course, work cannot start until all the necessary surrounding land is obtained, and a few parcels are missing from the puzzle.

“We’re still trying to reach agreements with some property owners,” Catell said.

If that doesn’t happen, the city could be forced to condemn properties and file for acquisition through eminent domain, making this whole process drag on even longer. Then there’s the construction to struggle through.

So, we have answers – yes, the intersection will improve – but for solutions in hard asphalt that make daily driving easier we can only wait.

Also under construction

This month, Tampa City Council approved a $10 million dollar contract to widen Manhattan Avenue from Gandy Boulevard to Euclid Avenue. The project will expand Manhattan to accommodate four lanes of north-south traffic and will also include creation of a center turn lane.

Looking for another example of answers vs. solutions, or ideas vs. actions? Discussion about this project, in one form or another, has been batted around for more than a decade.

Patience, it seems, is a prerequisite of progress.

Groundbreaking on the Manhattan Avenue widening project is officially set for 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 24.

Faulty ignition timing

As far back as October 2004, folks were waiting and hoping for a traffic light outside the Home Depot at South Dale Mabry Highway and Ballast Point Boulevard. That’s when former South Tampa News editor Jen Howell wrote a column about it, thinking perhaps it would be a New Year’s reality in early ‘05.

The light physically appeared a year later, unlit. And we’re still waiting for the juice to flow.

Alas, once again it seems time is not on our side. As of this writing, the poles and lamps still sit dark, covered in plastic.

Now I’m hoping TECO can shed a little light on this dangerous site in 2006.

So is Kathy Good Jenkins of Oakford Park. She sent me an e-mail last week wondering “what will it take for TECO and DOT to get these lamps lit, before somebody dies at that very dangerous South Dale Mabry intersection?”

From what I’ve been told, it’s just a matter of having TECO and the Department of Transportation make final equipment inspections. After that, and about 72 hours of flashing test signals, the light can move into regular cycles.

I had hoped to see some movement around Halloween.

“Now Turkey Day has come and gone,” Jenkins wrote. “Sure, Christmas would be nice, but does even Santa have that much power? I’m thinking we should start lobbying the Easter Bunny, just in case.”

The way things are moving right now, I’m inclined to agree.

Of particular note is the intersection at MacDill and Azeele Street. I mentioned it earlier this year in a column about high-incident traffic crash locations. At the time, the junction of MacDill and Azeele was among the Top 10 crash sites in Tampa.

It has since been knocked off the list, but the intersection clearly needs work. The road’s surface is pockmarked with holes, and many of the pavement markings are obscured.

A resurfacing and repainting could do more than enhance aesthetics and smoothen the ride – it could provide better stopping cues for drivers.

In a March 2003 story, Tampa Tribune reporter B.C. Manion wrote about city plans to improve safety at the intersection by adding turn lanes on all four approaches. At that time, city traffic engineer Debbie Herrington told Manion she expected the $750,000 road project to take about nine months.

Two-plus years later, I’m trying to find out what the hold up is all about.

Herrington and I played phone tag all week. She left me a message saying the city still plans to widen that intersection to include left turn lanes, but I didn’t find out anything about the delay. I’ll hit the phones again next week and see what turns up.

Meanwhile, I did get some input from local motorists. South Tampa resident Barbara Orban said her son was involved an accident at the MacDill/Azeele intersection in April 2003.

“Looking at the car, I thought he would’ve been killed,” Orban said. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but the boy’s car flipped over and he spent time in the emergency room.

Orban, a faculty member at University of South Florida’s college of public health, would like to see a new traffic signal erected at the intersection.

“I just cannot believe the bad condition of these roads,” she said, adding that the traffic fatality rate in her former home city in southern California was “half of what it is in Tampa.”

She said adjusting yellow lights to run longer could reduce red-light running, which often leads to accidents. Swapping out the intersection’s current traffic lights, which are outdated and hang low suspended from cables, could also help.

“One way to reduce crashes is to modernize traffic signals,” Orban said. “At certain points on this intersection, you can’t see these lights if you’re in the first car. This same accident could happen again.”

Orban offered up statistics from the Federal Highway Administration that provide correlation between road improvements and fatality rate reductions.

Evaluations made by the administration found sight-distance improvements at intersections reduced fatalities by 56 percent over a 20-year period. New traffic signals reduced fatalities by 53 percent over that same time period, and addition of turning lanes led to a 47 percent drop over the years.

Every $100 million invested in highway safety improvements will result in approximately 145 fewer traffic fatalities over a 10-year period, the administration states online.

“They put in new traffic signals and changed markings on pavement (to renew California’s older roads),” Orban said. “Here it looks like they just don’t put much money into them at all.”

More than $5 million is budgeted for city road repairs this fiscal year. Orban can’t wait to see them start using it.

Like most of us, she wants to see changes that will reduce the number of crashes.

Until then, drive carefully out there.



Send rants and raves about South Tampa traffic to Mitzi Gordon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Here is what I’ve pieced together from observation and discussion:

A red sedan pulled out of the Beach Park Academy II parking lot on Bay to Bay and attempted to head west by crossing over two lanes of oncoming traffic. Unseen by the driver, a gold SUV was headed eastbound on Bay to Bay and collided into the sedan’s driver-side door. Both cars were heavily dented.

At the sound of impact, our South Tampa bureau chief jumped up to check on the victims. A Tribune reporter called 911 and pinpointed the location and vehicle descriptions for rescuers. Within three or four minutes, a fire truck, ambulance and police cruisers had arrived on scene.

No fatal injuries were sustained, but at the time of this writing on Nov. 23 the SUV driver was still in the hospital being treated for chest pains, possibly compounded by her seatbelt and airbag deployment.

The whole thing was all over in less than half an hour.

It has been awhile since I was so close to a traffic accident. The grim sound of collision and the fear on drivers’ strained faces brought a dangerous reality close to home. It’s easy to imagine myself in their situation, especially with the way people drive around here.

I would hope that any passing motorist unfortunate enough to bear witness to a crash might act with renewed respect for his or her vehicle’s power, but I know this is not always the case.

That same day, I was both cut off and tailgated in separate instances. Later, while headed east along Bay to Bay, I saw a motorist pull across the double yellow line and into oncoming traffic. In his hurry to turn left, he was edging into a turn lane designated for drivers on the opposite side of the road.

I avoided the blockage and kept going, not sure if I was angry, astonished or just plain scared. It’s amazing the things people will do in their cars.

As of April 2005, traffic counts listed Bay to Bay Boulevard as operating at a “C” level – crowded, but still under capacity. I was unable to obtain speed studies before publication. (Guess everyone else snuck out of work early the day before Thanksgiving.)

According to Tampa Police Traffic Unit, following too closely is the No. 1 cause of crashes, followed by speeding and drunk driving. They don’t have any categories named “obnoxious maneuver” or “cell phone violation” or “homicidal steering.”

On the flip side – no pun intended – we must be doing something right. As of Nov. 22, South Tampa had completely ranked out of the Top 10 traffic crash locations in the city.

About a year ago we had two in the Top 10, which now includes intersections at Waters and Armenia avenues; Fowler Avenue and 30th Street; and Dale Mabry Highway and Hillsborough Avenue.

I feel like I keep repeating the same mantra on a weekly basis: “beeee saaaafe, beeee saaaafe, beeee saaaafe.”

I’m not about to stop now.

“Pedestrians could not see vehicles, nor could vehicles see pedestrians,” Porth said of the former crossing. “Now, pedestrians can see traffic on the bridge all the way to the hump some 700 feet back.”

In addition to helping engineer the relocation and signage, Porth worked with area condo associations to trim oak trees and sea grapes near the bridge’s curve to provide a clearer view for drivers.

While he feels the situation was improved by these changes, Porth does agree “there’s really not a good place for a crosswalk there.”
With resident density increasing on Davis Islands, and a new building almost complete at nearby Tampa General Hospital, he knows all too well that traffic is going to get worse.

“It’s a tough spot. It’s a tough situation,” Porth said. “I don’t personally see a solution to fixing that anytime soon, but we are continuing to observe the site for (safety) issues and possible future changes.”

Unfortunately, it is not likely that speed humps or rumble strips will be among those changes. High inbound car volume on Bayshore Boulevard and Hyde Park Avenue classifies the Davis Islands bridge as a collector road, carrying too much traffic to qualify for calming devices.

Sounds a bit contradictory perhaps, but that’s how it works. Think of it this way: Take a street that supports a lot of cars back and forth everyday, cruising at speeds of about 35 miles per hour. Adding speed humps slows them down, but the number of vehicles does not change. Now, watch said cars begin backing up father down the road than the eye can see.

Porth said the point of entry from bridge onto island was studied with radar guns a few years back, and no excessive speeding was found. Drivers were clocked at somewhere around 37 miles per hour.

Again, Porth understands the concern, describing Hyde Park Avenue from Cleveland or Platt streets as feeling “kind of like a runway.”

“It lends itself well to driving fast, until you hit the bridge,” he said. “The sign there says 30 miles per hour. Prudent people slow down and come to an appropriate speed in that area,” he said, although agreeing pedestrians may perceive the cars as going faster than someone on foot might like.

“In a perfect world, we would have a sidewalk running down that whole side (of the bridge) all the way over to Bayshore,” Porth said.
But construction of a new sidewalk along that inbound lane would be a precarious undertaking, requiring a new bridge edge, new railing, and other improvements to the tune of millions.

I won’t hold my breath.

Porth pointed out that no pedestrian-to-vehicle crashes have occurred at the bridge base since the crosswalk was installed. Let’s hope it stays that way.

As conscientious drivers, we can do our part by taking care to put down the cell phones, slow down, and watch the road.

Be safe out there.

Send rants and raves about South Tampa traffic to Mitzi Gordon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Here are a few issues I’ve noticed in my short time as a resident of this fine community:

To begin with the basics, most of the roads are all beautifully paved and free of any bumpy patchwork like that found on Bay to Bay Boulevard or other ravaged South Tampa roadways. One exception I’ve noted is along the northern end of Danube Avenue, where the street surface appears to have gone untouched since the mid-1960s. It could use some work.

As I mentioned, there is some noise from the business district on weekends, but it’s negligible – couldn’t put a dent in Ybor’s deafening decibel levels. It’s actually nice to have some nightlife nearby.

But sadly, the area is not immune to the boom car phenomenon. There are fewer on the island than there were in my old neighborhood near Waters and Florida avenues, but what residents lack in quantity they make up for in quality. Last week, I saw the biggest, shiniest boom truck I have ever laid eyes on. The reverberating bass was deep and rich. The undercarriage twinkled with neon purple flashes of light. It was a real piece of work – and just as annoying as the rustier rigs in my old hood.

Moving on to weightier issues, reader Bill Tripp of Blanca Avenue sent in his concerns about the hazardous pedestrian crosswalk at the bottom of the bridge leading onto the island. As drivers move across the bridge, whether entering from Bayshore or Hyde Park boulevards, they usually speed up to merge with other vehicles. Vision is restricted by a curve in the road, and you hardly know the crosswalk is there until you’re on top of it. It’s a dangerous situation for all involved.

“To slow or stop for pedestrians crossing here is to invite a rear-end crash due to poor visibility,” Tripp wrote. “Many cars are exceeding the safe speed limit due to the down slope. This should be treated as an urgent high-priority problem.”

Davis Islands Civic Association vice president Denise Cassedy has been active in the community for many years, working to develop long-range plans for dealing with traffic tangles and other problems. She said the city’s relocation of this pedestrian crossing in 2004 – when it was moved closer to the bottom of the bridge – did help those on foot to better see oncoming cars. But there’s still a catch.

“They extended the sidewalk up a little bit so that you can actually see oncoming traffic (if you’re walking), but unfortunately, the traffic really can’t see you,” Cassedy said. “It gives you a false sense of security. I think the city knows it wasn’t the best solution, but I don’t know where else they can put crosswalks there.”

She agrees people are inclined to speed over the entrance bridge, but hopes a new lighting project might slow things down a bit. Her self-professed “pet project” of three years, this involves adding “up lighting” to trees along the main median of Davis Boulevard.

Karen Cashin with the city of Tampa parks and recreation department described the project as primarily “aesthetic.” However, any bit of light that allows cars to see better as they drive onto the island is helpful, she added.

The city has already purchased lights to be set at ground level and shined up into the trees as accent illumination. Cashin is still working the project through permitting process, complicated by the median’s split between city parkland and right of way. She hopes to have the red tape untangled and the lights in the ground by Christmas.

While this will offer an ambient glow that could help pedestrian visibility, Cashin doesn’t see the project as a solution to the bridge-and-crosswalk problem.

Alas, it seems no one has an ideal solution right now. To make things truly safe, the city would probably have to purchase or receive easement from one of the nearby condominiums, and run the crosswalk under the entrance bridge. Otherwise, the path would have to run much farther south on Davis Boulevard. Neither idea is going to be deemed practical, nor likely to happen any time soon.

I was unable to reach a city of Tampa traffic safety engineer for comment before press time, but crosswalks such as these generally fall within their jurisdiction. If you would like to throw in your two cents, give them a call at the Public Works Department, 274-8721. It can’t hurt to have more people addressing the dangers. Also, you can make requests for new sidewalks and sidewalk repair by calling 274-8333.

Another viable but slightly more complicated option is to visit www.tampagov.net and click on the link to the Customer Service Center in the upper left hand corner. When the page pops up, hit the “A to Z listing” link, then click on “S” and scroll down to “Street Marking Request,” selecting either “new” or “repair.” Then you get to fill out a form. Whew.
I recommend just picking up the phone.

Meanwhile, I’ve run a bit long-winded, but will take up further Davis Islands discourse in an upcoming column. In noting these issues it is not my intention to complain – merely to inform and assist. I would like to hear more of your concerns.
Send me e-mail sometime, and let me know if you think I’m “right on,” or just off my rocker.

Send rants and raves about South Tampa traffic to Mitzi Gordon at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).