Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
City officials reluctantly agreed recently to discuss the upcoming upgrade of U.S. 19 by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and decide whether to ask for more traffic-calming measures.
The issue is one that City Clerk Emily Anderson had raised several times during the last two months, noting that the FDOT was asking if city officials wanted to give any input on the upgrade. The response, however, was typically lukewarm.
Finally, however, at the meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 25, Mayor Julie Conley responded in the positive, asking that the item be placed on the council’s next agenda for discussion and the possible adoption of a resolution.
City officials are understandably gun shy about asking for traffic-calming measures, given their experiences with the controversial bulb-outs on U.S. 90 between North Olive and South Waukeenah streets.
Anderson noted that prior to the U.S. 90 resurfacing project, the city had put much effort into conveying its concerns to the FDOT about the road and offering various options for slowing the traffic within the city. But no such effort had taken place in the case of U.S. 19, she said.
“The council will need to make a strong statement if the city wants traffic-calming measures put in,” Anderson said.
Otherwise, she added, the FDOT was not likely to implement any such measures on its own.
She further noted that relative to U.S. 19, the city had mostly focused on the area from north of the courthouse to just beyond the post office, as the highway soon thereafter returned to a four-lane road.
Even though much pedestrian traffic occurred near the Mafia Pizza area, the FDOT would never condone traffic-calming measures there, Anderson said, noting that U.S. 19 was a four-lane road at that point.
It will be interesting to see how officials thread the needle relative to any traffic-calming measures on U.S. 19, given their experience on U.S. 90.