{"id":22346,"date":"2022-05-10T17:10:45","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T21:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=22346"},"modified":"2022-05-10T17:14:58","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T21:14:58","slug":"road-diet-and-mayor-mutz-is-trying-to-protect-it-but-not-everyones-happy-with-s-fl-ave-in-dixieland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/05\/10\/road-diet-and-mayor-mutz-is-trying-to-protect-it-but-not-everyones-happy-with-s-fl-ave-in-dixieland\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Road diet&#8217; and Mayor Mutz is trying to protect it, but not everyone&#8217;s happy with S. Fl Ave in Dixieland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;A lot of people are complaining about one of&nbsp;Lakeland&#8217;s busiest streets \u2013 after it was put on a so-called road diet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/download-2-1.jpg?resize=258%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22348\" width=\"258\" height=\"193\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Florida Avenue went from five very narrow lanes to three wider ones and drivers aren\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And now the Mayor has made a video to try to protect it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HWwXhNiiJ7A\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;You felt like you were being pushed up onto the sidewalk next to you, or you were having to fight for space with larger vehicles on the inside lane,&#8221; Lakeland Transportation Manager Chuck Barmby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A plan was developed to change the road from five lanes to three and install concrete barriers on either side of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"299\" height=\"168\" data-id=\"22349\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/download-3.jpg?resize=299%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22349\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" data-id=\"22350\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ken-road-diet.webp?resize=1110%2C624&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22350\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The so-called road diet runs a mile right through Dixieland, from Lime to Ariana streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, drivers complain that merging into fewer lanes is dangerous and slows traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/download-1-1.jpg?resize=454%2C288&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22351\" width=\"454\" height=\"288\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some drivers even say they avoid this stretch of road at all costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, some businesses in Dixieland like the change because cars and trucks are no longer so close to their shops.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The city just launched an information campaign promoting a meeting in July where drivers, business owners, and concerned citizens can speak their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;What could we do to make it better? We want constructive criticism,&#8221; asked Kevin Cook with the City of Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some people want the concrete curbs taken out so that the street can go back to the way it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If it is one of those things that we have to take a step back, we\u2019ll take a step back, if that\u2019s what the community really needs as a whole,&#8221; said Andy Orrell with FDOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The meeting is going to be held at the RP Funding center on July 11 from 5 to 7 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;A lot of people are complaining about one of&nbsp;Lakeland&#8217;s busiest streets \u2013 after it was put on a so-called road diet.&nbsp; South Florida Avenue went from five very narrow lanes&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[2454],"class_list":["post-22346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-road-diet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}