Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/273295
Siesta Seen "Open the bridge," SKVA Vice President Kay Kouvatsos finished Johnson's sentence. The traffic on the bridge "is nonstop at 9 o'clock in the morning," Johnson added. A person who works at the boatyard off Stickney Point Road emailed the county com- missioners on Feb. 26 to ask about the FDOT change. He also pointed out the backup every day on the bridge. "US 41 will need a traffic officer on Easter weekend [because] traffic is backed up so far from the island," the man pointed out, if the situation is not improved by then. Patterson told her fellow commissioners she understood FDOT staff was looking into whether the timing of the signals could be adjusted to ameliorate the situation at the Stickney Point Road intersection, but given what she had observed on Beach Road, "If you lengthen the light cycle in one direction, you are going to create havoc in the other." Vice Chairwoman Christine Robinson con- curred with Patterson about the gravity of the problem. However, Robinson pointed out that she had observed a related issue: "Folks just don't walk in the crosswalks." She added, "It's amazing to me, driving up and down the road. They'll be 50 feet away and not walk in the crosswalk," especially in the vicinity of the Stickney Point Road inter- section. "I don't think there's anything we're going to be able to do to stop that." Robinson noted that FDOT in 2012 put in the six new crosswalks on Midnight Pass Road between the Stickney Point Road and Beach Road intersections "to create a safe lane of travel for the pedestrians." Perhaps this issue offers an opportunity for public education through the Siesta Key Condominium Council — the avenue for discussions before that 2012 project was pursued — about the need for people to use the crosswalks, she continued. Patterson thought that was a valid suggestion. "Unless we as citizens start doing what we're supposed to do — both drivers and pedestrians — we're not going to be able to cure every- thing on that road," Robinson pointed out. Then Patterson added with a chuckle, "It's interesting that FDOT's objection to [install- ing] crosswalks [in some locations] has been people don't pay any attention [to them] …." Robinson responded that the new crosswalks on Midnight Pass Road have been "very effec- tive … for stopping cars when they're used." Just hours earlier, during the SKVA monthly meeting, past president Russell Matthes, co-owner of the Daiquiri Deck, raised the issue of the new situation at the Stickney Point Road intersection after Sarasota Sheriff's Deputy Chris McGregor provided his report. "I know you're not FDOT, but what can you tell me?" Matthes asked McGregor. "I don't want to go there," McGregor replied with a laugh. Then he added, "We're getting calls at [U.S.] 41 and Stickney." Sarasota News Leader March 7, 2014 Page 115