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Calming Effort Too Much Of Good Thing?

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By HAROLD VALENTINE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 12, 2008

CARROLLWOOD - A 30-year Original Carrollwood resident, Bob Long, said he and neighbors have tried to get traffic-calming measures on Orange Grove Drive for several years.

Hillsborough County began implementing traffic-calming measures in Original Carrollwood late last year after a traffic analysis showed 85 percent of drivers in the neighborhood's roads drove 5 to 15 mph faster than posted limits.

Long said he is glad the county did something to control traffic, but he thinks the "literally dozens of speed humps, speed bumps, speed tables and speed plateaus in Old Carrollwood and surrounding residential areas" are overkill.

Long said the placement of some speed tables doesn't make sense.

He mentioned the tables on Lake Carroll Way between Orange Grove Drive and Dale Mabry Highway.

"There are two in each direction approximately twenty yards apart, and their construction is so severe that for the safety of the automobile, an almost complete stop must be made at each bump," he wrote in an e-mail.

He said drivers avoid the tables by going on Reclinata Lane and then Linebaugh Avenue to get to Dale Mabry. Long thinks tables on Lake Carroll Way should be fixed so that traffic there has a smoother ride, maintaining the road as a major feeder road.

Long said that not much can be done with the tables that "mushroomed" around Orange Grove Drive.

Be In The Know About Road Work
Road projects under way include:

•Sheldon Road between Flora and Norfolk streets will see construction beginning Monday for pedestrian signals and ramps. The work is being done between rush hours until June 12.

•Resurfacing on Kelly Road, between Memorial Highway and Hillsborough Avenue, is scheduled for completion on Sunday.

•Power line removal wraps up today on Memorial Highway between George Road and Anchor Plaza Drive.

•On Waters Avenue, between Sheldon Road and Wilsky Boulevard, TECO is installing a lighting system from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. until Friday.

•Also on Waters, work on turn lanes into Woodland Center Boulevard continues between rush hours until June 6. Woodland also is undergoing work for driveways and sidewalks until June 6.

•Gunn Highway's long-term project of lane extensions in front of Sickles High School continues until Aug. 29.

•Intersection improvements continue at Boulevard of the Roses and Lutz-Lake Fern Road until June 22.

•Hutchinson Road, from Chastain Lane to North Mobley Road, is undergoing drainage improvements until April 24.

TRAFFIC CONCERNS?

Are there local traffic or road issues that concern you? Construction projects you wonder about or hazards drivers should know about? If so, contact reporter Harold Valentine at (813) 865-1526 or hvalentine@tampatrib.com.

Reporter Harold Valentine can be reached at (813) 865-1526 or hvalentine@tampatrib.com.

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