Illegal turns making many drivers see red

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

Jessie and I heard from several readers last week who are thoroughly fed up with people who make right turns against red turn arrows. It irritates me, too, but not quite as much as the police departments that acknowledge they are aware of the problem, yet make no move to cite drivers who don't get it.

Fred Richenderfer of St. Petersburg notes two extremes.

The first is on St. Pete Beach, where the Pinellas Bayway meets Gulf Boulevard. The arrow for right-turners is green almost constantly to keep vehicles moving onto Gulf Boulevard. The only time the arrow turns red is after a pedestrian pushes the "walk" button.

When the arrow goes red, drivers must stop. But, according to Fred, vehicles constantly stop when the arrow is green, waiting for Gulf Boulevard traffic to clear.

The other side of the coin, he says, is at Gulf Boulevard and 75th Avenue, where motorists turn right even when the turn arrow is red.

We heard a similar complaint from Judy Lavaron of St. Petersburg about the intersection of 28th Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, where northbound 28th Street traffic constantly turns right against a red turn arrow. Judy said if she is first in line and doesn't turn illegally, drivers behind her start honking.

Sheesh. That is so soooo rude.

Both the St. Petersburg police and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office told us they are aware of the problem at northbound 28th Street.

So . . . why aren't they out there handing out tickets? In a matter of months they could take in enough to repave every street in town.

Of course, then we wouldn't have any potholes to complain about.

So this is our traffic rule of the week. You can turn right on red unless there is a sign prohibiting it, or unless there is an arrow turn signal that has gone red. You cannot turn right against a red arrow. Period.

Oh, yeah, you also can't turn right on red if there are cars coming at you. But you probably knew that already.

Cautionary note: Now that the rains have started in earnest (also in St. Petersburg), be careful when driving through a storm near the exit from the northbound lanes onto eastbound Interstate 375. The exit is marked "The Pier." The roadway isn't draining well, and water often sheets across all lanes. There was a serious accident there a week ago when a vehicle hydroplaned and crashed. A state trooper responded to the accident and another vehicle hydroplaned and hit the trooper's car. Nobody was hurt seriously, but that was sheer luck.

We have been doing a lot of driving lately and noticed that a whole lot of streets in the city have huge crowns. They aren't so apparent when you're driving along those streets, but crossing them risks serious undercarriage contusion.

So we asked Michael Connors, the major-domo of stormwater engineering for St. Petersburg, how that happens, and why something isn't done about it. And he had an answer.

In the first place, Connors told me, roads are engineered to have crowns, even when they're brand-new. Being higher at the centerline than at the curbs channels stormwater to the gutters instead of leaving it standing on the roadway to cause hydroplaning accidents (see item above).

Over the years, two things happen. Heavy vehicles crusing the roads press down the pavement under their wheels.

"Look carefully, and you'll see one rut about four feet off the curb and a second rut maybe five or six feet from it," Connors said. "There isn't the same pressure on the crown so it actually gets higher relative to the lanes."

Summer heat makes the problem worse, softening the asphalt and making it more susceptible to the crush of heavy vehicles.

The city does pavement overlays, generally speaking, at intervals of 15 years.

"Every time you put another layer of asphalt on, you raise the crown even more," Connors said.

Jessie has a name for this phenomenon: Crown Creep.

About 1995, some of the crowns were getting so hairy the city decided to spend more time and money on repaving, and instead of slapping on a new layer of pavement, about an inch or two of old pavement was ground off first, taking the crown down to the original design. Pavement that develops patters of checkerboard cracks also are ground down. If they get asphalt overlays in their cracked condition, the cracks just radiate through the new surface.

"Actually, there are mixed emotions about crowns," Connors said. "Some people like them because they force traffic to slow down. They have a traffic-calming impact, like giant speed bumps. Others hate them because they don't want to have to be buying new mufflers every year."

Jim Staub came up with the Eyeball Jiggler of the Week, a Category Two pavement mess on 54th Avenue S in the eastbound lanes just a snail's crawl west of Fourth Street. Watch yourselves there. Also, Fourth Street S on both sides of 22nd Avenue is a mess. There are three areas of badly chewed pavement in the southbound lanes near the curb just north of 22nd Avenue and major jolts in two places in the northbound lanes south of 22nd.

And what's up with this? Tree limbs and vines completely blocking the curb lane of westbound 42nd Avenue S between Fourth and Sixth streets. They literally hang to pavement level. This can't be a good thing. Yikes.

- Dr. Delay can be reached by e-mail at docdelay@sptimes.com, by fax at (727) 893-8675 or by mail at 490 First Ave. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

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