It’s real tough making a left-hand turn onto southbound Speedway Boulevard (SW 137TH Avenue) from westbound Biscayne Drive (SW 288TH Street). The protected left-hand turn (with the green arrow) lasts less than 10 seconds so that only three vehicles can safely make the protected turn – as long as they are all paying attention and actually GO when they are supposed to. The traffic light signalization was configured back in the mid-1990s when the intersection was low-usage, Speedway Boulevard was known as Tallahassee Road (and was an old dusty two-lane rural road), and farmland surrounded it. Now it’s a major highly-travelled thoroughfare travelled by thousands of motorists in all different directions daily. The design of the intersection itself is severely flawed. They need to blow it up and pretty much start all over with it.
This afternoon it was the same old story.
Vehicle # 1 – Hesitated a few seconds before making the protected left-hand turn (wasn’t paying attention).
Vehicle # 2 – No problem – followed closely behind the hesitater.
Vehicle # 3 – Just sat there. The driver was too busy talking on his or her cell phone. We’ve lost the protected green arrow.
Vehicle # 4 – That was me. Miraculously the vehicle in front of me as well as myself were actually able to make it through the congested intersection after the heavy oncoming eastbound traffic had passed through, but we barely did so before the light turned red again.
It’s just another typical day of driving in and around Homestead Florida U.S.A. – the fastest-growing city in the entire nation !
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