Holiday Lake Resident Pursues Traffic Change on Alt. 19

Some people complain about traffic and do nothing to make it better. Holiday Lake Estates resident Nancy Thompson isn't one of those people.

When Thompson decided there was a problem on Alternate U.S. 19 outside the gateway to her subdivision, she contacted the Florida Department of Transportation, lodged a complaint and requested help. Now the state is working with local authorities to see if signals on Alt. 19 can be coordinated better to ease traffic flow.

The department is going to look at making other improvements in the area, as well.

Thompson lives on Dartmouth Drive in Holiday Lake Estates. She leaves her development by driving on Holiday Lake Drive to the development’s exit at the road’s intersection with Alt. 19 and Louis Ave.

“I’ve been frustrated with the amount of traffic and the really poor way that intersection is set up," she said.

What do you think about traffic near Holiday Lake Estates? Let us know in the comments section.

The light at Holiday Lakes/Louis/Alt. 19 has a left turn arrow on the Holiday Lakes side, where the exit and entrance to the subdivision is located, but not on the Louis side.

The exit from Holiday Lake Estates only has a left turn lane and a right turn lane. 

Thompson believes that the arrow signal on the Holiday Lake side is not lit long enough during periods of heavy traffic. She said that drivers who want to go straight onto Louis, on the opposite side of Alt. 19 from Holiday Lake Drive, get trapped behind drivers who want to turn left onto Alt. 19. A green light stays on after the green arrow discontinues, but oncoming traffic from Louis traps drivers from turning left and traps the drivers at the exit from the subdivision.

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Driving onto Alt. 19  from Louis is also a problem, Thompson said. There are neither turn lanes nor turn arrows on Louis at its intersection with Alt. 19. Vehicles get trapped there, too.

Sometimes Thompson has 11-year-old granddaughter, Leah, with her in the car. She worries that if she makes a left turn from Louis onto Alt. 19. at the wrong time “I’m going to get T-boned.” And she fears the damage will be done right where her granddaughter sits. She also won’t turn left to go to the Sweetbay further south on Alt. 19.

“It’s a dangerous intersection, it really is,” she said.

Traffic has increased since a nearby high school arrived, Thompson said, and a new store being added to the intersection also won't help.

Thompson sent her initial email with complaints to the Florida Department of Transportation May 9.

In addition to her concerns about the traffic lights, she added in her email that traveling northbound on Alt. 19 can be a “complete nightmare during certain times of the day. The northbound left turn lane into Holiday Lake Estates is too short to let vehicles to switch from the main lane to the left turn lane and traffic is stopped.

“During the afternoon hours (3:30 to 5:30 p.m.)," she stated in her email to the state," I have seen the traffic stack up on Alternate 19 northbound so bad, that there is solid line of traffic from the signal at Alternate 19 and U.S. 19 to the bridge over the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs and sometimes beyond that.”

On May 17, Kristen Carson, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Transportation got back to Thompson. Carson said a state engineer had visited the intersection.

“Traffic is backing up on Alt. 19 and at times blocking the side streets from being able to turn onto Alt. 19,” she wrote to Thompson. 

The light at Alt. 19 and Lake Drive is maintained by Pasco County. The light at Alt. 19 and Anclote Boulevard (south of the Holiday Lake Estates gateway on Alt. 19) is maintained by Pinellas County.

The state is requesting the two counties change signal timing to coordinate the lights and ease traffic.

State Action Not Enough

Thompson said she was surprised that the agency responded to her so quickly, but wrote to the agency that the change “does nothing to alleviate the problem exiting our development.”

She pointed out again that there’s no left turn arrow on Louis and that "you are basically guessing if traffic is going to go straight or is going to turn left, especially since no one ever seems to use their turn signals anymore."

She clarified it's also a problem for people leaving the development.

“On Louis, westbound just before the light, the road curves and increases in elevation and makes it difficult to see oncoming vehicles when you are exiting from Holiday Lake Estates,” she wrote in a follow-up email to the state.  "If there is vehicle waiting to turn left from Lewis onto Alt.19, then any vehicles that come up behind them, move to the right to clear that vehicle so that they can turn right."

Thompson said she also thinks the signal at the intersection of Alt. 19 and U.S. 19 should be coordinated with the signals at the intersections of Alt. 19 and Holiday Lake Drive and Louis and Anclote and Alt. 19.

She also still thinks designated turn lanes and straight lanes should be added on Holiday Lake Drive and Louis.

Carson emailed Thompson June 4 to tell her the state was going to count vehicles making turns at the Alt. 19/ Holiday Lake Drive/ Louis Avenue intersection to see if adding a turn arrow on Louis at Alt. 19 is warranted. 

“This study will be conducted very soon,” she wrote to Thompson.

Thompson still has questions, so an engineer will be contacting her as early as today to talk, the state told her.

Thompson said she understands issues like this this take time and money. She’s spoken up for change before, and she's willing to stick with this issue.

"How do you put a price on somebody’s life?" she asked. “You can’t.”