Houses, Houses and More Houses - But Where Are The Roads? (Sarasota: apartments, condo)

[craigiri]

There is very little precedent for the type of population growth Florida has experience - coupled with the lack of mass transit. Most heavily built up areas are designed with light rail and other such things to support the populations.

Even if they did keep building the roads, they'd always be a decade behind - AND, the 12 lane road has to end somewhere. Where?

Also, these massive roads cause massive noise pollution. In a flat place like Florida that means you can hear a motorcycle or truck going through the gears miles away. Not exactly the idea of Paradise.

Yes, Florida has always been about the short term. Still is.

Think about it. In Sarasota our "regular streets", of which we have multitudes, have more lanes than I-75. Now think about I-75 and heading anywhere else in the state! A nightmare...I can tell you from direct experience.

[d4g4m]

There are only two ways to access Lakewood Ranch, University or State Road 70. At least an over pass should have been considered. Really poor planning.
And if you think the traffic is bad that Lakewood Ranch is having, think about the traffic gridlock there would be in North Port if every one of the tens of thousands of empty lots had a home on them. And every lot gets clear cut of trees because the home must be elevated 3 feet because of the septic field. A forest would disappear.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

Benderson is looking to use a trolley service to cut down traffic congestion at the new University Parkway mall:

Trolley service planned for Mall at University Town Center

Benderson should create a "virtual UTC mall" web site so shoppers could "walk" though the mall from their smart phone or laptop screens at home, make their selections, and then have a drone deliver it.

That would really reduce traffic, and he could eliminate some parking lots surrounding the mall too.

[beach43ofus]

North Port should be buying land now to create 8 superwide mobility corridors from I-75 to the beaches where future exits will be, & at least 2 running North/South. Chances of them doing this? 0

Every City screws up transportation. Nobody ever learns from history. What does that say about the intelligence of politicians, government workers, & the "consultants" they hire for "studies"?

We loved Palmer Ranch, but the traffic is already tough there during season, and I could envision it 5-10 years from now. I saw they are widening 41 South from Central Sarasota Pkwy., and extending Bay Street from 41 to I-75, but that is to accommodate all the new housing going in right now along Honore between Central Sarasota Pkwy and Laurel.

This is why we went further out into the boondocks of Southern Sarasota County. We'll probably have to move in 10 years when the growth smothers us out here too. Before long, SW FLA will look like SE FLA from Jupiter down to Miami...gross.

Flying cars can't get here fast enough, bt they'll need organized skyways so they dont crash into one another.

[bbronston]

Originally Posted by d4g4m

There are only two ways to access Lakewood Ranch, University or State Road 70. At least an over pass should have been considered. Really poor planning.
And if you think the traffic is bad that Lakewood Ranch is having, think about the traffic gridlock there would be in North Port if every one of the tens of thousands of empty lots had a home on them. And every lot gets clear cut of trees because the home must be elevated 3 feet because of the septic field. A forest would disappear.

Lakewood Ranch also can be reached from SR64 and Fruitville as east-west roads and, if you consider the north-south connectors, you can even consider 301 by way of the new bridge. When 75 gets jammed up, drivers use those roads, along with LWR Blvd and Lorraine to bypass the problem.

[craigiri]

As I was saying.......I-75 and these other roads might as well be called death traps since that is what they are. We look back in history to human sacrifice as barbaric, yet are willing to sacrifice our own families and 30K+ killed and 100's of thousands wounded...per YEAR....for getting to the mall and stuff.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/6-kil...230206201.html

"Fla. (AP) -- Two big rigs and two passenger vehicles collided and spilled diesel fuel across a Florida highway Thursday, sparking a massive fire that killed seven people and injured at least eight others, authorities said.

The wreck happened on southbound Interstate 75 about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Alachua, near Gainesville. The flames were fed by about 50 gallons (189 liters) of diesel, authorities said."

Must have kept 10's of thousands of others sitting on the freeway like a parking lot (daily) spewing out even more pollution.

Sorry to say - 12 lane roads are not the solution. More insanity does not fix current insanity.

Totally self-driving cars will help...in perhaps 15-20 years when enough of them are on the road. But that's maybe 1/2 million American deaths away.

Florida is quite high in it's particular grouping:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRYlznDUsAE0M0c.png:large

That is, people in states that drive as many miles (OH, VA, MD, MI) have as many as 1/2 the traffic fatalities per mile driven.

It's serious stuff - not just numbers, but many of us who have had family injured or even killed. But obviously money is more important to some as is political ideology.

I once asked on these boards why there were no trains from the east coast to the west coast...also no direct low cost flights (SRQ to Miami area, for example) and the other posters pilloried me for even thinking about it! According to them, my 88 year old parents should just somehow bear it.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by craigiri

As I was saying.......I-75 and these other roads might as well be called death traps since that is what they are. We look back in history to human sacrifice as barbaric, yet are willing to sacrifice our own families and 30K+ killed and 100's of thousands wounded...per YEAR....for getting to the mall and stuff.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/6-kil...230206201.html

"Fla. (AP) -- Two big rigs and two passenger vehicles collided and spilled diesel fuel across a Florida highway Thursday, sparking a massive fire that killed seven people and injured at least eight others, authorities said.

The wreck happened on southbound Interstate 75 about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Alachua, near Gainesville. The flames were fed by about 50 gallons (189 liters) of diesel, authorities said."

Must have kept 10's of thousands of others sitting on the freeway like a parking lot (daily) spewing out even more pollution.

Sorry to say - 12 lane roads are not the solution. More insanity does not fix current insanity.

Totally self-driving cars will help...in perhaps 15-20 years when enough of them are on the road. But that's maybe 1/2 million American deaths away.

Florida is quite high in it's particular grouping:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRYlznDUsAE0M0c.png:large

That is, people in states that drive as many miles (OH, VA, MD, MI) have as many as 1/2 the traffic fatalities per mile driven.

It's serious stuff - not just numbers, but many of us who have had family injured or even killed. But obviously money is more important to some as is political ideology.

I once asked on these boards why there were no trains from the east coast to the west coast...also no direct low cost flights (SRQ to Miami area, for example) and the other posters pilloried me for even thinking about it! According to them, my 88 year old parents should just somehow bear it.

AND YOUR SOLUTIONS ARE? East-West trains would not have prevented this North-South accident.

[beach43ofus]

I've noticed that local governments and their developer pals are trying to situate high-density housing nearer Interstates.

I can think of 3 large scale high-density complexes here that are all along I-75, and near exits. This reduces miles travelled on surface streets. Having UTC Mall next to I-75 was also smart for the same reason.

If these things would have been implemented in the 1930's, we'd all be much better off, but they weren't.

In Florida, we have an older population, and lots of visitors who are unfamiliar with directions and our roads, so I don't see any solutions there, besides self-driving cars. Maybe making GPS mandatory in Florida? New cars have blind spot warning technology, so that will help as time passes and older cars w/o the latest technology are removed from service.

Tractor-trailers having their own isolated lane w/a physical barrier wall would help keep them away from cars. There'd have to be breaks in the walls for entry/exit.

There are no easy solutions to problems. Having the developers in bed with the local politicians is the root cause of a lot of our surface street congestion issues. We've had poor planning and corruption for a very long time, and its not going away anytime soon.

Combine trips, and drive only when neccessary. Stay off interstates as much as possible. Design your routes to have right hand turns, and not left hand turns. At UPS, I learned how much faster/safer rights are than lefts. You'll almost never see a UPS truck turning left. They have routing software that creates routes with almost all right hand turns. You can do the same to some extent.

[Ladywithafan]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

AND YOUR SOLUTIONS ARE? East-West trains would not have prevented this North-South accident.

As I75 expands north & south, maybe separate the big rigs & trucks from cars by barriers; Let them crash in their own lanes.

[kombuchaluchador]

Florida has a pretty dense population. Adding new roads would just encourage people to drive more, canceling out any kind of advantage that would have come from widening roads.

It would be great if we could work out our pedestrian/bike infrastructure. It wouldn't completely eliminate traffic, but it could help to keep a few people off the road who would have been there otherwise. Our warm climate and relatively dense cities (for the south) should be ripe for the picking on this kind of stuff. There seems to be a lack of education on how react around bikers/pedestrians (on both the driver, and biker/pedestrian end).

I don't think we should just expect self driving cars to help full stop. At this point, this is all just speculative, we don't know how long it will take for them to catch on, how many will be on the road, whether they will peacefully coexist with other drivers, etc. Also, part of the problem is the sheer number of cars on the road, especially in wintertime, Im not sure that self driving cars will help much in this.