Page 10 - Florida Sentinel 11-18-16 Online Edition

Local
Last Main North/South Thru-Street In Black Community To Get 3 Maybe 4 Roundabouts
The City of Tampa’s plan to install 3 roundabouts on one of the busiest thoroughfares in East Tampa is receiving mixed reviews from residents, business owners and leaders.
City officials claim round- abouts at the intersections of 34th Street and 21st; 34th and Lake; and 34th and Osborne av- enues are safety improvements needed along a two-mile stretch of the road, from Columbus Drive to Hillsborough Avenue.
The project is a federally funded $4 million joint effort between the city and the Florida Department of Transportation.
According to city officials, the design phase is complete and construction is scheduled to begin in January 2019. The pub- lic meeting was just a formality, and no other meetings will be held.
About 14 fatal and serious injury crashes 7 years ago, oc- curred along this segment of 34th Street, according to a citywide report.
Calvin Hardie, the city’s street maintenance head, said at a public meeting last Thursday that adding the roundabouts could reduce significantly the number of crashes even further.
According to Hardie, stud-
ies show there is a 60 percent re- duction in fatal crashes and 48 percent reduction in crashes overall when signalized intersec- tions are converted to round- abouts.
However, according to sev- eral major engineering firms, traffic control is disappearing at an alarming rate and people are made to believe that modern roundabouts are the best thing that ever happened to hu- mankind, which will not only channelize traffic, but also avoid intersection crashes and ensure the safety of non-motorists.
However, there are major drawbacks associated with mod- ern roundabouts which include, ....they are, by design, slow. When you have a roundabout every mile or two, you might end up spending more time on the road and less time waiting to get to your destination using 34th St. As compared to traffic circles, roundabouts increase the travel time by a huge margin.
Not to mention, there are no options. Mainly because 40th Street also has 3 roundabouts and 22nd has 1, resulting in large trucks and motorists using neighborhood streets to avoid the roundabouts.
Also, the statistics used from 2009 to 2011 concerning the 14 accidents, did not include the numerous crashes that have oc- curred on 40th St. and 22nd Street since those roundabouts were installed. Studies do show that in cases of traffic conges- tion, the gap between vehicles becomes less. This could result in more low-speed crashes and more fender benders.
According to Hardie, the other benefits include, less emissions, less maintenance and operations costs, and more green space in neighborhoods, he said.
The less costs for mainte- nance leaves more money for other community projects, he said.
Nationwide studies dispute the city’s reasoning about roundabouts. Studies show that they require higher mainte- nance costs and that modern roundabouts are an expensive solution for traffic control.
Like traffic circles, very large roundabouts require huge land
mass and long splitter islands that further increase the cost.
Also, the public who at- tended the only meeting set about the roundabout, were also not convinced roundabouts are the right solution to 34th Street’s traffic problems.
Some citizens pointed out that it might be better to add an- other signal at 21st Avenue and 34th Street, while others ques- tioned what safety measures would be in place at round- abouts to keep pedestrians safe.
Dee Sutton, a school bus driver, said her route requires her to drive along 40th Street which has a few roundabouts.
But Sutton said she never drives along that street in her personal vehicle because she doesn’t feel safe.
“People driving north and south feel like they have the right of way,” she said.
There is a “learning curve” that comes with the installation of roundabouts and there are plans to boost driver education about them via outreach pro- grams, said Jeanne Duncan, director of the city’s transporta- tion and stormwater depart- ment.
In the meantime, the city should move forward with its plan, said Otha Lockett, who pastors a church located on 34th Street.
Lockett said exiting from the side street where he lives onto 40th Street is “not as dan-
gerous as it used to be” with the installations of the roundabouts. Toni Gaines, however,
said she remains unconvinced. City officials should just re- duce the speed along 34th Street rather than install the round-
abouts, she said.
“I don’t think (roundabouts)
will be safe,” she said.
In a telephone interview,
Tampa City Councilman Frank Reddick said much of the resi- dents’ frustrations about the roundabouts stems from lack of knowledge about how to navi- gate them.
Still, the city should heed residents’ resistance and explore other options for improving safety that has been done on other busy thoroughfares, such as installing flashing lights at crosswalks on Hillsborough Av- enue, he said.
“My position is if the com- munity is not happy with it, I stand with the community,” he said. “No one should be forced to receive anything they don’t want.”
To Councilman Red- dick’s point, according to out- side studies, roundabout navigation depends mainly upon two factors: traffic lanes or traffic density and the behavior of the driver.
The second factor is not only hard to predict, but it is highly variable, resulting in confusion while reaching or crossing through a roundabout.
22nd Street
40th and Hanna
Other Drawbacks To 3 Roundabouts On 34th Street
1. Very large roundabouts eat up a lot of public space. They will make the widest parts of 34th Street more narrow.
2. Roundabouts are not at all friendly for handicapped people, children and especially for visually impaired pedestrians. Additional pedestrian signals need to be installed to safe-guard them.
3. Cyclists and walkers suffer the most because of blind spots on a roundabout.
4. Alternative pathways have to be designed to avoid round- about exit accidents and that increases the cost of construction. Also, neighborhood streets become alternative routes for many drivers to avoid driving a roundabout.
5. Roundabouts are not suitable for "platooned" traffic flow. Emergency vehicles like ambulances cannot make it through round- abouts easily.
Bus service and emergency service are a major concern, however, HART’s service and present bus stops are dangerous and impede the flow of traffic, not to mention its curb appeal is non-existent on 34th Street, (With the 22nd Street roundabout, emergency vehicles cannot navigate roundabouts due to the narrowness of the circular lanes.)
PAGE 10-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016