Thank Lafayette Park neighbors for new speeding signs | Street Scene
As the state reopens for business and we navigate our neighborhoods in cars again we will have to be at our vigilant best, on the alert for children at play adjacent to streets and also playing in the streets. Driving heads-up is required.
Q. Don’s message to the driver of a black Mercedes Benz SUV: Stop rip-roaring around Lafayette Park and never again race past me ignoring the double yellow lines on Miccosukee Road.
A. Good grief. I understand your anger when you see someone jeopardize your safety and the lives of others but only get a licence plate (tag) number, and report to law enforcement. Never attempt to confront anyone this extreme. OK, Tallahassee citizens and police please watch out for this and all lunatics of the same stripe. Thank you Don.
Q. Speaking of Lafayette Park, I have several emails from residents there thanking the city, (or as one nice lady put it) "whoever is responsible" for the electronic speed monitoring signs on Sixth Avenue. Jan is hopeful they will slow people down. A thank you from William includes a note he is hopeful these devices will also be installed on Seventh Avenue. William, they will also be on Seventh Avenue.
A. The "whoever is responsible" is you, residents of Lafayette Park. Please give yourselves the earned applause. Speeding on the “I-6, I-7” one-way pair has been of foremost concern for folks living in Lafayette Park for many years. It is your involvement, the creation of a traffic safety committee and your voice published in Street Scene, which brings attention to your elected representatives and others in city government responsible for public safety. You have jolted them into understanding speeding cars on Sixth and Seventh Avenues are a disaster-in-waiting.
I am very glad to know those in charge of our personal safety have responded to dangerous driving in Lafayette Park. I will however request the Tallahassee police traffic unit continue patrols and issue citations to anyone ignoring traffic laws. Such as our reckless driver in the black Mercedes Benz SUV.
Q. Micky is rightly concerned for students getting lost in cellphone communications and walking into the street and the path of a motor vehicle. Micky believes any talk about traffic safety must include the knowledge of how to stay safe when crossing a street.
A. I say rightly concerned because Micky is correct. As long as people young and not so young allow themselves to be lured into thinking ‘this message can’t wait’, trouble is only one car length away. My objective with IMPAACT is to reach as many high school students as I can so when they arrive at a college they have a handle on the obvious. About 85 percent of drivers are driving above the posted speed limit, a strong percentage are as distracted as you are, and if you are walking or on a bicycle and chose to go up against a vehicle designed for the road, you will lose.
Q. Mark joins the chorus of frustrated drivers eastbound on Mahan Drive coming upon snarled traffic at Capital Circle. He says cars waiting to turn left onto southbound Capital Circle are backed up blocking the eastbound thru-lanes coming into the downtown and questions the wisdom of building more homes and shopping in an area already overcrowded.
A. Mark you and others already comfortable in your chosen area of living would like others to go to a less congested area of Tallahassee to live, shop and play. Your suggestion is as old as the idea of rural communities. Trouble is, the people living in the other communities are saying the same thing you guys are. Traffic engineers of long ago coined the phrase “not in my backyard” to exemplify what you see as poor planning. Tallahassee is a unique place with old fashioned charm, the Capitol of a dynamic state people are flooding into, excellent institutions of higher education and excellent year-round weather.
All of the above is attractive for people, and people bring their cars. I say, keep our wits about us and not become aggravated when we find ourselves in congested traffic. Understand it will eventually clear and we will be merrily on our way, once again.
Philip Stuart is a retired Florida State Trooper, Traffic Operations Projects Engineer and Forensics Expert Witness. Write to him at: crashsites@embarqmail.com.
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