South and North Roosevelt roadways to stay the same for now

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

There’s good news for people who didn’t want any changes made to South Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West. That’s exactly what you’re going to get.

city officials had been discussing several options with the state Department of Transportation (FDOT) to make the roadway more pedestrian and bike friendly. Those options included reducing the four-lane roadway to potentially two or three lanes for cars, installing a dedicated bike lane and possibly a center median to help make it safer for pedestrians to cross the busy street.

But after a public workshop, several discussions and a solid outcry from many residents against reducing the number of lanes, city staffers are going to recommend to Key West City Commissioners that everything stays the same.

“Just having the half-marathon [race] the other day, people were saying, ‘See, we need all four lanes,’” said City Manager Jim Scholl. “It’s easy to accommodate these things if you have all lanes available.”

Scholl said that emergency services officials also wanted to keep two lanes in each direction for fire and ambulance vehicles. “That’s what’s leading us to the recommendation,” he said.

Assistant City Manager Greg Veliz, who oversees the transit department, agreed with the recommendation, saying a new, separate bike lane is not necessary.

“I’ve ridden my bike there [on the South Roosevelt Blvd. sidewalk]. That’s the safest place to be despite the fact you sometimes have to share it with pedestrians,” Veliz said.

The “no change” recommendation will go to commissioners at their next meeting on Feb. 7.

Over on the other side of the island, on North Roosevelt Boulevard, city officials want some changes made to the recently repaved roadway but FDOT is holding off for now despite continued complaints that the new pedestrian crosswalks installed along the heavily-trafficked street are unsafe. Unclear signals have made it dangerous for people to cross the boulevard. While state law requires cars to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, the fast-moving traffic on North Roosevelt has made it difficult for drivers to see someone crossing the street or, in many cases, one car stops but the car in the next lane does not.

City Commissioners voted unanimously on Oct. 18 to send a request to FDOT urging it to rethink the crosswalk plan, taking out the crosswalks that “are unsafe and deemed unnecessary.”

“The City Commission finds that some crosswalks on North Roosevelt Boulevard present safety hazards, may not be necessary, and should be removed,” the resolution read.

At a January 10 meeting between city officials and FDOT, however, state transportation officials threw out the request to eliminate some of the crosswalks, saying they are “part of a system-wide treatment to provide pedestrians safe passage across the road,” according to Omar Meitin, FDOT district traffic operations engineer.

“[FDOT’s] recommendation is to enhance the crosswalks with pedestrian activate Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons and provide additional overhead street lighting at the crossings to increase nighttime visibility,” Meitin said in an email to Key West officials where he summed up the Jan. 10 meeting.

The flashing beacons are what is known as HAWK, a High-intensity Activated Cross Walk signal. HAWK uses a series of traffic lights – yellow to prepare drivers to stop and red to stop – once a pedestrian has pushed a button at the crosswalk, activating the lights.

However, installing the flashing beacons on North Roosevelt won’t happen for possibly several years due to funding restrictions at the state level. FDOT’s work schedule program won’t open up until July and new projects would be “programed into the outer years,” Meitin wrote. The only way to speed up the installation would be for the city to pay for it. FDOT agreed to give the city a cost estimate for the proposed project.

In another move that could delay the safety beacons, FDOT also wants to gather additional pedestrian counts at the existing crosswalk locations on North Roosevelt. State traffic staffers counted crosswalk pedestrians in November but want to recheck that number during the city’s busy tourist season. That date collection is expected to be completed by the end of January and a final report will be submitted to the city commission by Feb. 6.

Scholl said FDOT was asked if any of the new crosswalks could be removed if the new data shows they are underused. The state’s answer was no.

“FDOT reminded the city the crosswalks were installed as part of a system-wide treatment and recommends that all crosswalks remain and incorporate the proposed enhancement features,” Meitin wrote in the Jan. 10 meeting minutes.

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