Permanent San Carlos Boulevard trolley lane discussions beginn
Many concerned citizens of Fort Myers Beach and San Carlos Island listened carefully to a panel of nine traffic experts and assigned officials before participating in public comment regarding a proposed trolley lane from Summerlin Square to Estero Island. The Direct Trolley Lane Workshop was held at town hall on Thursday, Feb. 25.
FMB Councilman Bob Raymond chaired the the fact-finding discussion which is in the initial stages of finding a solution to easing the pressure of a bottleneck traffic congestion -now and in the future- leading to the popular Beach destination. The panel consisted of Boardwalk Capers representative Ron Kollmeyer; Lee County Department of Transportation’s David Loveland; FMB Chamber of Commerce’s John Albion; San Carlos Island Redevelopment Corporation’s Joanne Semmer; LeeTran’s Steve Myers; Florida DOT’s Johnny Limbaugh; FMB Fire Control District’s Darren White; and Lee County Sheriff Department’s Matt Leclair.
The 1 1/2-hour meeting centered on the probability of installing a permanent or express lane in the middle of the five designated lanes on San Carlos Boulevard. Debate ranged from not eliminating the current turn lane to allowing both trolley and turn lane access to installing a traffic light by Siesta Isles to safety issues if a sixth lane was to be added.
“Currently, there’s about 66 feet of pavement width-wise on San Carlos Boulevard,” said Civil Engineer and National Service Leader at Wilbur Smith Associates Chris Swenson. “For five lanes, that’s a lot of pavement. Normally a five-lane section would take up about 60 feet.”
Myers, who is the transit director for the trolley system, stated there is a need for the permanent lane during “season” and offered numbers (2005 season: attracted 220,000 riders from mid-December to mid-April; 2009 roughly 135,000 riders in the same span during poor economic times) as well as study and analysis findings to cement his beliefs. A current study by LeeTran and Wilbur Smith Associates, which is expected to be completed in the next 60 days, is expected to provide several alternatives designs for a trolley lane on the Beach approaching road.
“A LeeTran preliminary study that we did several years ago suggests that the approach to the Matanzas Pass Bridge could be widened to allow trolleys to access the bridge trolley lane from San Carlos Boulevard without reentering mixed traffic,” he said. “To qualify for Federal funding, LeeTran is required to complete a full environmental analysis of the project. That analysis would develop a full set of alternatives and, after community and stake-holder input, then would result in a selection of a preferred alternative for implementation.”
Although many agreed the feasibility of the pro-trolley lane experts, there were those who were adamantly opposed to the recommendations if the turning/merging lane in the middle of San Carlos Boulevard was eliminated. San Carlos Island resident and business operator Joanne Semmer wrote a letter giving full detail about the opposition (check the Opinion Page in the Beach Observer’s March 3 issue) and Tony Agin of Capt. Tony’s Fishing Adventures shed a different light on the merging situation from his business.
“We are worried about entrance and exit from the property,” said Agin. “When traffic backs up in both lanes, we have to inch our way across the two lanes as people stop and let us through. We can’t merge with the traffic coming off the Beach which is doing 40-45 (miles per hour). We have to use the center lane to pull out and speed up to merge into the traffic. People coming northbound on San Carlos Boulevard who want to enter our property have to use the center lane. If they were to stop in traffic with their turning signal on with someone coming behind them at 45 miles per hour, you can see where that would be a big problem.”
The viewpoint of a Boardwalk Caper condominium owner was from a different perspective. He believed the problem wasn’t getting people on the Beach, but involved the traffic leaving the Beach.
The civilized debate brought out issues and concerned that Raymond
“This (workshop) is doing exactly today what I had hoped it would do,” he said. “We’re starting to break the ice of what people think. It’s unbelievable how many great ideas people have if you can get them together to talk. This is a start. If you lived her 10 to 15 years ago, you’d probably couldn’t imagine what we have here today. We need to be looking at (traffic solutions) before (it gets worse) in the next 10 to 15 years from now.”
Now that the initial talks are over, the esteemed experts and representatives will meet again once the LeeTran/Wilbur Smith Associates study is complete with findings.