U.S. 41 flow stop-and-go in south Lee County..

U.S. 41 flow stop-and-go in south Lee County.

Traffic engineer Earl Salley answers a complaint call at the command center of the Lee County Department of Transportation on Tuesday. Through the command center, Salley can regulate how 80 percent of traffic lights operate.

At daybreak, vehicles line up along U.S. 41, and drivers jockey for position in the north and southbound lanes from Colonial Boulevard to Daniels Parkway in south Fort Myers.It's an area widely acknowledged as one of the most congested in Southwest Florida. It's also a stretch where even traffic lights rarely dictate the flow of traffic.The drivers, edgy and unpredictable, wait to gear up. But a red light tests their patience.
One minute passes. Then, two. A few motorists rev their engines, anticipating a green light.At 3 1/2 minutes, agitated drivers begin to hammer away at their steering wheels. Others sit patiently, seemingly accustomed to the delays.
Finally, a green light.In the stop-and-go traffic world of U.S. 41, from south Fort Myers to Bonita Springs, motorists creep only a block before another red light — and another long wait.During season, the waits are inordinately long because the volume of vehicles on U.S. 41 increases 10 to 15 percent in January, according to Lee County Department of Transportation officials.
The traffic lights are stressed to handle the increase, in part, because U.S. 41 is the major north-south route through Lee County for local and crosstown traffic, other than Interstate 75.
It's a roadway, too, that accommodates a myriad of drivers — including daily commuters and those simply passing by.Steve Jansen, a Lee DOT traffic engineer, said it's no small task trying to manipulate lights to keep traffic flowing evenly and safely along U.S. 41, also known as Cleveland Avenue.
"We're just nibbling at the edges," said Jansen, 50, who studied engineering at Clemson University. "We try to do as much as we can with traffic timing to increase capacity of the roadway. Even if you had the best signal timing in the world, you're only going to get marginal improvements."Typically, the traffic lights along U.S. 41 adjust mostly during three occasions: the arrival of seasonal residents, also known as snowbirds; major accidents on I-75; and morning and afternoon rush hour.
Recently, a string of freeway accidents channeled an average of 10,000 extra cars onto U.S. 41 each time, according to Jansen. Also, it disrupted traffic flow.Lee DOT's command center, which monitors the efficiency of traffic lights on one of Southwest Florida's busiest north-south corridors, was pressed as well."These cars have to go some place, so they're forced through the bottleneck of U.S. 41," Jansen said. "In the winter, we are exceeding the traffic capacity at every intersection.
"You can only fit a certain amount cars on the roadways at a certain time. Then, the traffic backs up — and it's only getting worse."In the busiest areas along U.S. 41, there are three lanes both north and south. While delays were prevalent between Colonial and College, the Cypress Lake Drive-Daniels Parkway intersection was the busiest with almost 100,000 cars frequenting it daily.
In an effort to minimize traffic congestion, Florida DOT officials are working on a plan to construct a traffic operations center at the truck stop near I-75 and Daniels Parkway. The center, which is expected to be completed early next year, will have cameras and other sophisticated equipment to monitor accidents and trouble spots on the freeway to determine potential delays caused by detouring traffic to U.S. 41.The county's command center, located at Enterprise Parkway near the I-75/Luckett Road exit in east Fort Myers, is a limited operations facility. It is opened only during weekdays and a small staff monitors 80 percent of the county's traffic lights for only four hours — two hours each for morning and afternoon rush hour."If we detect any problems, we make sure the lights are running correctly," said Greg Coggins, a county traffic engineer who orchestrates traffic from the command center. "We might be able to change traffic signals when something happens on I-75, but usually U.S. 41 just becomes a parking lot."
Problems on U.S. 41 often escalate when the command center and the Florida Highway Patrol fail to communicate. Such was the case when a recent crash on a Collier County bridge diverted southbound traffic on I-75 to U.S. 41, backing up traffic from North Forth Myers through downtown Fort Myers."The FHP may not think about getting with us quick enough to change the timing of the lights," Coggins said. "If we catch it when it occurs, it really helps."
Because the command center is still in its infancy, it doesn't always operate efficiently. So county officials are likely to lobby for more funding to provide additional cameras and equipment to better monitor traffic, particularly along U.S. 41.For now, the county is trying to succeed with an oft-complex system that coordinates traffic lights. There are as many as 12 different timing patterns, which are determined by the time of year and time of day.Right now, with tourist season in full bloom, Jansen said the red-to-red cycle is longer. Typically, it takes 120 to 220 seconds for a traffic light to change.
The timing will shorten some on May 1, which signals the departure of snowbirds and winter vacationers. That, of course, doesn't mean life on the road will be back to normal."It's a very complex thing," Jansen said. "You have to collect a lot of data and run them through a computer model, but the computer can't factor how people drive up and down the U.S. 41 corridor."
Jansen said the timing is also driven by several human factors — including driving speed, lane changes and use of side streets."Motorists have lots of control," Jansen said. "They must ask themselves if they have to take certain trips or, at least, delay them."The only way to fix that is for drivers to adjust their trips. If you don't have to be on U.S. 41, don't be there. If you are there, don't complain."
Jansen said traffic lights and other equipment won't improve traffic flow if a significant number of drivers are inattentive cell phone users. He said an unscientific study revealed cell phone users can put traffic 5 to 10 seconds behind, further jamming up the roadway."Cell phones have a cascading affect," Jansen said. "All the cars behind them are five seconds late because the first car started slowly."
BY THE NUMBERS
58 Traffic light networks198 Traffic signal controllers determine timing and help minimize delays
370 Lights powered by Florida Power & Light Company31 Lights powered by Lee County Electric Cooperative
120 Minimum seconds for lights to change
220 Maximum seconds for lights to change
240 Seconds it takes for some faulty lights to change.