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| Traffic was backed up from the Wal Mart at Sorrento and Blue Angel all the way to the "Roundabout" at Johnson's Beach Road and Perdido Key Drive on Perdido Key Saturday.... |
Extra signage. Extra rumble strips. Additional lighting. And still even more signage.
Yet the complaints about the Perdido Key roundabout (which was supposed to improve safety and movement in, out, and through Perdido Key) appears to be a problem. Now I am wondering---Is this roundabout helping or HAMPERING the flow of traffic into and out of Perdido Key?
I've spoken to our traffic engineer this weekend and we are going to get to the bottom of the issue and answer that question---scientifically---over the next several weeks. Then, we will decide a potentially new course to take.
Because once this portion of the district reverted back to D1 in January of 2022 after redistricting in 2021--the roundabout was already engineered, designed and funded by the previous commissioner from this area. On top of that--I was assured that the roundabout was the preferred option that was voted upon by the citizens by a large margin after multiple open house meetings out there prior to 2022.
So upon assumption of this area I moved forward with construction which is now completed. And I have been out there multiple times and driven through the roundabout from every direction with no problem. But others are having problems.....
And now that it is constructed---I am having a hard time finding anyone, literally anybody who will publicly claim they "like" the roundabout or "support" the county's construction of it. And I can't even find anyone from this supposed "majority" who supported it initially. They've pulled a D.B. Cooper on me.
I am finding complaints though. Lots. "It's not big enough" is one common one I am hearing.
"It's backing things up" is another. "There are a lot more wrecks now!" is yet another.
Yes---there have been a number of wrecks, and also multiple persons have blown through the roundabout, straight through it, damaging signage and plantings which had to be replaced at county expense. According to one angry citizen: "I hope they [the county] figure it out. I got a feeling until the turnabout is gone and some alternative turn lanes is put in the problem will continue. The 35' ACE Hardware delivery truck that's route takes it through there twice a week had to stop and back up and eventually just crossed striaight over the mediun in order to get through. Impossible for any emergency vehicle or delivery truck of any size getting through without resorting to doing the same. The ACE driver has reported it to the owner of ACE hardware who also told me the same thing."
An official very familiar with the issue summed it up succinctly: "There isn't much we can do when both roads are backed up and headed in the same direction..we can't do anything to make people move quicker across the bridge and not back up through the intersection. Too many people on too narrow of a road."
So we are going to do an analysis and apply an appropriate fix. That's what we are going to do.
stay tuned.
9 comments:
I don't know what the solution is but thank God it's being looked it. That thing is a disaster!
Whether it’s a roundabout, or a stop light, traffic through this area on Saturday afternoons (condo checkin in time) is going to be continue to be bad until we’ve got 4 lanes from Blue Angel to the state line. Getting rid of the roundabout, which works great at slowing traffic through this area at non-peak times and increases safety, would be yet another bandaid fix.
The legacy of the worst commissioner to ever hold office Escambia County lives on. Not just because he lied about everything concerning the roundabout (public input, what it was going in for in reality--to drive day visitors out of the Key, *why* it is so squished up--mouse houses for adjacent development, anyone?), but because he screwed traffic on the Key and beyond when he killed the four laning and threw Sorrento out to boot.
This is why those of us who truly understood the implications fought so hard to keep that road swap from happening. Beyond the 125M Doug lost out of District 2 the moment the vote was made, it sealed never having the funding to 4 lane that road (and put the next hurricane on the taxpayers back until if and when broke FEMA coughs up the dow). Commissioner Bergosh, you might want to look at the extremely sketchy removal of PK Drive from the official hurricane evacuation map around the time the road swap was happening. One day it was; the next day, POOF!
There are also emails spanning back *years* with Doug belittling and threatening staff about the real stats on traffic out there; I believe it was Colby that got the worst bawling out on the subject. Recall also that the roundabout was conceived under a Janice Hire. (In most cases, once a Janice Hire, always a Janice Hire.) You know, the one who messed up traffic so badly in another city bringing a road diet that she got an ethics complaint filed against her. Which of course made her a prime "baller" to get up to some nonsense for Doug here in Escambia. Didn't she go work for the company that she single sourced the Jackson project to?
Randy Cudd and I don't see eye to eye on a whole lot having to do with politics these days (and that's an understatement). But he hit the nail on the head when he said, early on, that Doug was the most destructive commissioner the County had ever seen. And if I said it once, I said it a hundred times. It will take 20 years to dig out from the infrastructure neglect and disasters he created. I'm so sorry it's blowing up this badly. Not many who were really paying attention to what was at the time District 2 are surprised, given the architects of the mess and the *true( end goals for it in the first place--hinder not help traffic, and design it in a way that it didn't require too much mouse habitat required by one of Doug's primary developer puppet masters.
Been on the key since 2018 No doubt the roundabout has severely backed up traffic during busier periods Huge mistake
10:43--But the residents spoke loud and clear when they said, adamantly, they DID NOT want Perdido Key Drive 4-laned. Period. And then, in 2014 they voted for a guy out there that KILLED the State's 4-Lane project for Sorrento Road. Now that the area is back in D1 I am trying to put the pieces back together and at least the 4-lane of Sorrento is moving again in the TPO and we have put millions of dollars into that project to incent the state to move it forward in their planning. But elections have consequences and they guy they voted in back in 2014 did a LOT of damage out there, hid public beach access, killed 4-lane access, and was exceptionally mean-spirited toward the business owners and residents out there. Again--he's gone now--tending goats on a farm up near Alabama--and I'm here getting things fixed. But it is going to take a minute to do it. Alice Hurst Neal--I am hearing from others, though, that before the roundabout those taking a left into the Johnson's beach area would stack up the traffic going north and that traffic was worse then--as at least the roundabout keeps the cars moving. But we will see. I am going to have a professional traffic analysis conducted and then we will develop a strategy based upon that.
As an owner that voted for a traffic circle and not a stop light, my expectation was that a real traffic circle would be engineered, not half a circle that large trucks have to drive over a curbed area to get through. A real traffic circle has two lanes. Right lane for next exit and left lane for continuing around. We didn’t get that and traffic stops as a result. Is a two lane circle the solution? I don’t know but getting a Professional Traffic Engineer to study the intersection is the appropriate action.
Exactly what DWG127 said - what was built was not what was presented to us. The roundabout does help Johnson Beach flow and when turning left onto JB Road. It was just built way too small, should have never left the engineering office as an approved project. Who is supposed to be maintaining all the plants - the have already been replaced 2x at tax payers expense and dead again! The center plantings in the middle of the roundabout is pitiful - welcome to Perdido Key, we aren't lost, we are just a pitiful piece of paradise - just put your shades on and you won't see the neglect or tax dollars being hauled out on a brinks truck to other parts of the county.
Exactly right DWG127. And yes, Jeff, the roundabout does help the 750 or so cars that come and go on JB Road during high season, but it gives those turning there as much constitution as the 5000-10000 cars that travel on PK drive during that same time, and it completely traps those leaving Beach Colony, Indigo, Ocean Breeze, Palacio, etc. I've lived fulltime on the key since 2008 and the traffic has never been as backed up as it is now, both coming and going to and from the key. Not only is the roundabout just one lane, but the arc isn't big enough to signal intent as people pass though it. It's too small, and just plain crazy-confusing.
The BOCC seems to instinctively defer to traffic studies to support some sideways decisions (the ridiculous one done in winter, during covid for the new Perdido-area Altura complex comes to mind) but you can buy the result you want in an independent traffic study. I didn't 'vote' for the traffic circle (key residents were surveyed, at best) but those who did vote for it assumed it would be fully-functional and fully scoped. Right now, it's a symbolic half-thought at best, with dying landscaping and 25 wrecks and counting.
My original post was on here but later removed for some unknown reason; so I’ll try again. As a long time member of the trauma team at one of the local hospitals, I do support the roundabout. Prior to the roundabout there were 25+ accidents resulting in serious injury or death in that high speed curve at the Johnson Beach intersection (FDOT data). It was so life threatening that local residents demanding something be done to calm traffic flow at the intersection. Following construction of the roundabout there have been fender benders but no serious accidents resulting in injury or death (to my knowledge of dispatched calls). Please review FDOT, NHTSA and local EMS crash data as well as engineering review. The original 6/11/2020 Escambia County meeting discussing those concerns can be located on YouTube under the heading “Public workshop for Perdido Key Drive at Johnson Beach Road intersection project”. Thank you
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