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Residents Reject Roundabout Options
By Floyd Egner
Publisher, Tropical Breeze
Safety Harbor residents who made written
comments regarding a consultant's recommendations in the city's
downtown mobility study were two-to-one against the idea of
incorporating roundabouts as a solution to reducing traffic congestion.
A total of 46 written responses were received
by the city as a result of a public
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hearing held August 16. Several
hundred people attended the two-hour open house at the Safety Harbor
Community Center, where American Consulting Engineers (ACE) displayed
easels with conceptual drawings of several recommendations for changing
downtown traffic patterns.
Roundabouts were clearly the most controversial
of the recommendations, while strong support was shown for adding more
stop signs in the downtown district and building raised brick walkways
at cross streets on Main Street.
An analysis of the written comments showed 26
negative comments with 13 positive regarding roundabouts. However,
several of the positive comments were split, favoring one of two
proposed roundabouts, but not the other. ACE suggested the city
construct a roundabout on South Bayshore Boulevard at the intersection
with Seventh Street South and consider another on Main Street at the
CSX railroad crossing.
(A pdf file containing the written comments is available at TropicalBreeze.com.)
The consultant also suggested raised brick
walkways at most of the downtown intersections on Main Street,
consideration of additional stop signs and speed humps on side streets
and a landscaped median along a portion of South Bayshore with parking
on the Bay side of that street, replacing an existing parking lot that
could be lost to a roundabout. The walkways are intended to slow Main
Street auto traffic and make pedestrian crossings more distinct.
Discussion at the open house was informal,
allowing city residents to interact with representatives of the
consulting firm and city officials. The written comments revealed the
disdain a number of the participants felt.
"American Consulting Engineers should
voluntarily offer to refund a significant portion of their fee. Nice
pictures. No substance," wrote Safety Harbor resident Howard Sachs.
"When asked what local cities or municipalities have successfully
implemented these types of ‘improvements,' the ACE representative
simply shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I don't know!'"
"Do not spend any money on supposed aesthetics
until drainage and infrastructure issues are resolved," wrote Brian
Dean, who also questioned whether traffic calming is needed on Main
Street. "Stop signs are cheap. If they do not work, we haven't lost
anything."
Some participants associated roundabouts with
Clearwater's troubled experience on Clearwater Beach. Six specifically
mentioned it as an example of what not to do.
Others, however, had a different perspective.
"Traffic circles are an awesome idea," wrote
Nick Friederich, a Safety Harbor resident who also is a design engineer
with RS&H, a consulting engineering firm. "Helps slow down cut
through traffic but does not impede local traffic. Single lane avoids
merge problems similar to Clearwater Beach roundabout. Raised sidewalks
also a big positive."
"I am opposed to the addition of roundabouts,
except at the intersection of Main Street and Ninth," wrote Sherri
Eriksen. "I think this intersection is complicated now and the proposed
roundabout would improve traffic flow and create a nice look coming
into downtown - providing it doesn't impact the Whistlestop!"
Both Eriksen and city resident George Grant
supported the idea of rerouting Bayshore traffic along Iron Age Street
to Second Avenue North, actually closing Bayshore as a through street
in front of the city's marina.
Two business owners at the west end of Main
Street, Stub Munro of Weinert Realty and Owen Linder, M.D., each
suggested the city purchase currently vacant property on Tenth Avenue
South to create a new municipal parking lot. Linder noted, however,
that the asking price for six lots - approximately one-halfblock - is
nearly $1 million. A single commercial building on two lots on the
adjacent block is priced at $950,000, he added. "Either the building is
only worth the land it is sitting on or the vacant land is overpriced,"
Linder said.
Munro, whose office is on the corner of Tenth
and Main, said, "When there is a function at the marina, I have people
park in my parking lot at my office. It is not out of the realm of
reality to think that if there were a municipal parking lot at this
location it would not be used."
An additional criticism of the proposed changes
was of the landscaping. Emily Papachristou wrote: "No one wants parking
on Bayshore, especially added trees. We want to see the view. We need
parking on Main."
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