Lakeland commissioners aren’t thrilled with the South Florida Avenue “road diet” as the pilot study comes to an end.
The trial period was slated to run for a year, from October 2020 to October 2021. FDOT extended the study into 2022 at the request of city commissioners last summer. Commissioners expressed concerns COVID might have reduced the number of vehicles on the road, according to Chuck Barmby, Lakeland’s business development and transportation manager.
‘We were concerned about making a decision too quickly,” Barmby said. “We wanted to get through this peak season to see on South Florida Avenue what travel looked like.”
FDOT officials estimated that COVID had reduced the number of vehicles traveling along the Dixieland corridor by 5% to 10% during the first five months of the trial.
The state agency anticipates holding a public forum in April to allow Lakeland residents to give their feedback on the road diet, according to FDOT spokeswoman Tricia Pichette. An exact date or location has yet to be determined.
“What’s the other option? We hate it, I hate it,” Commissioner Stephanie Madden said last week, citing complaints from residents.
Commissioner Bill Read made clear he’s not a fan of the road diet, giving his own vision for the corridor’s future.
“I think DOT missed the boat in this particular area,” he said.
“The road as it existed before was not acceptable,” Barmby said. “It doesn’t mean the road diet is the permanent solution.”
Can it be put back? Probably not
The road diet pilot cost approximately $1.7 million to construct over a period of about six months. It was paid for by the FDOT and the Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency.
The city’s goals of reducing accidents, improving pedestrian safety, and encouraging economic activity and growth in Dixieland will remain at the forefront of any changes in the South Florida Avenue corridor.
How can the DOT expect to direct traffic from a large feed to a smaller feed and expect it to work? Bad idea to start with, yet they spent all this money to determine if it would work or not? They are the experts at this and yet they do something like this? What am I missing here, do I have it all wrong?
Because of this road diet, my family no longer uses this road. We used it once and noticed the all the concrete had tire marks on it.
As a cyclist I dislike this…no room to ride safely on the right as there is much glass and debris. Dislike it in the car too…I avoid this area!
The road diet looks so bad. I avoid this area as much as I can. I had to go to the bicycle shop and the traffic was so slow and I was so happy when I left that area. It’s terrible to spend that kind of money and it makes no one wants to travel that area.
I don’t know why we needed to spend $1.7 million to find out this was a bad idea. Common sense tells you that you can’t restrict traffic without adding travel lanes somewhere or diverting traffic to a new through way. Commissioners that supported this should be worried about keeping their seats.
I agree. The idiots who don’t have common sense can easily be weeded out with this whole idea. It’s just too bad it was at tax payers expense, spending over 1.7mil. There have been far more accidents in this area due to this monstrosity. Nothing good has come from it and all the businesses in the area suffer from the loss of traffic. I know I don’t go thru or to that area for anything anymore.
“Pilot study”? “Trial period”? “1.7 million dollars”? Why didn’t the DOT just ask me? I’d have given them the correct answer for half that, saving them both time and money in the process. Probably one of the dumbest ideas I’ve seen. BUT, on the flip side, if you drive through that area and notice all the tire marks on the concrete, I’d have to think the area tire stores LOVE them! I can imagine an out of town visitor traveling through that corridor for the first time, at night, in a heavy summertime rainstorm, with those unpainted concrete barriers in the middle of the street, thinking “what moron decided THIS would be a good idea?”
I live in North Lakeland and I avoid going to South Lakeland via South Florida like the plague because of the changes. I travel Kathleen/Harden now, which is inconvenient. I just spend my money on the north side or online now.
Will the results of the study be honestly released to the citizens of Lakeland? A drive from downtown Lakeland to South Lakeland should not take 30 to 40 minutes and yet I experience it every weekday. To avoid the congestion on South Florida, I tried taking Harden but so does everyone else. It seems the money could have been used to widen the lanes, not shut them off completely.
It’s a debacle, both physically and financially for the businesses. NO alternative traffic flow patterns were established prior to this disasterous implementation. If you want to see how dangerous this nonsense really is, just look at the tire marks along the concrete islands – each one IS an accident created by this mess!!
After this debacle is fixed, The FDOT NEEDS TO FUX THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS TO PUT THEM IN SEQUENCE IN ORDER TO LET THE TRAFFIC FLOW BETTER LIKE IT DUD BACK IN THE DAY.