Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim 9922
As I understand it, the ticket blitz is the sheriff's answer to the original purpose of the meeting; to make safety improvements to the road/cart path. You can plaster the whole road with tickets but nothing really has been done to correct the underlying design errors and problems when the road was built.
You are mixing carts at 800 pounds with 3600+ pound vehicles, with the carts traveling at 2/3 the speed of the bigger vehicles and with only about 3 feet of separation. Then you force carts to cut across 2 traffic lanes to make a left turn or to enter traffic if turning in from a side street (depending on which way you are going); not to mention the southbound Russian roulette game required to get to the tunnel under HY 466.
To my knowledge almost all of the cart accidents have been from errors or lack of judgment in turning, not speeding cars and carts running over each other.
They say vehicle counts are up to 15,000 per day. Assume that 80% of that is from 9AM and 5PM, and deduct another 20% more for vehicles that only travel short distances. So maybe you have a "steady stream" of 9,600 vehicles during the 8 hour day busy time. Divide that by 480 minutes in an 8 hour day and you have a vehicle passing every 3 seconds. (even halve my numbers and you have a vehicle every 6 seconds) Top that off with a long stretch of the road without any traffic signals and many side streets funneling in traffic at a random rate. So, you have no "blocking" of vehicles that allow traffic-free spaces for turning across lanes. AND IT IS WORSE AT THE SOUTH END AT THE 466 GATE where the gate keeper's main function is to cram, as fast as possible, 2 lines of cars into one lane going North. They could care less that 5, 7, or even sometimes 10 carts can be stacked up southbound in the middle of Morse trying to make the left turn onto the cart path to get to the 466 tunnel!
So what is really needed? A tunnel at the HY 466 crossover, a separated golf cart path moved over on the existing shoulder of the road, and if not that, a series of traffic lights timed to control the flow of traffic.
Will any of that be done? Probably not. The roads are the responsibility of the County and I don't see it spending any money to correct the Developer's original errors in design and implementation. So what will probably happen, the cops will continue to write tickets, collect money for the County coffers, and say all is well until there are a couple more bad accidents and the whole complaint cycle begins again.
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I agree with much of this, but if you drive on that road you know that there no way that a car passes a given point every six seconds. Many times I go through those gates and don't see another car in either direction for a quarter of a mile.
There is no way those numbers can be correct.
The gate keepers do a wonderful job of controlling the two lanes merging into one. Rather than contributing to the problem, as you seem to suggest, they make it safer.
I've never had a problem crossing over to make a left hand turn. I simply check my mirrors and am aware of my surroundings, use both electric and hand signals and change lanes when it is safe. It's only one lane that you have to cross by the way.
The same goes for getting to the tunnels going southbound. I find that once I signal with both my lights and hand cars slow down to let me in. On very rare occasions, a car does not let me go, so I wait for the next opportunity.
You mention "all of the golf cart accidents". I've lived here for three years and can only recall two. And, as you say, they were both caused by operator error and had nothing to do with the infrastructure.
There was also the incident where a driver had a medical episode and struck a bicyclist.
None of those had anything to do with the way that the road is built.
Having said that however, I do agree that it would be best if the paths were removed to off the roadway itself. That certainly would have prevented the three incidents that I mentioned. But, we need to look at what that would Buena Vista. Then, several tunnels would have to be built. I'd say three to four. The cart paths would have to accommodate two way traffic as they do everywhere else in TV. Is there enough room on both sides the entire length to build them? The areas where the paths would go are currently used for drainage. Can a system be designed and engineered to build cart paths an retain the drainage function? Is some of that property privately owned by homeowners whose homes back up to Morse?
I'm sure that there are many more questions that would have to be answered before a project like this could be attempted. A feasibility study would have to be done first to determine if it's even possible. Then the money has to be discussed.
i'm thinking we're talking about tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Who is going to pay for it.
I agree with. I will never be done.