TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa dad says he no longer feels safe driving on West Shore Boulevard, especially now that he’s teaching his kids to drive.
Edgar Ramirez-Pagan said he hardly recognizes West Shore Boulevard anymore.
“This was a neighborhood street. It’s become much more of a throughway due to that development north and south,” Ramirez-Pagan said.
He has lived just off the road for 20 years, and he said it’s now harder than ever just to make a turn onto the road.
“We all go to work. We all go to school. There are times where it makes a left-hand turn onto any part of Westshore almost deadly. Dangerous,” Ramirez-Pagan said.
As the traffic has gotten busier, he finds that drivers have to take more chances just to get where they have to go.
He finds that especially to be the case on West Shore Boulevard between Kennedy Boulevard and Gandy Boulevard, where the road is only two lanes.
“You pray for the goodwill of somebody to let you in. And if not, you kind of manhandle your way into traffic. That irritates people and you get yelled at, but I don’t know how else to do it,” he said.
Officials with both Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa said there are no immediate fixes in the works on West Shore.
However, FDOT said the ongoing improvements to the Westshore Interchange should help traffic on surrounding roads, like West Shore Boulevard.
Now that he’s teaching his teenage kids to drive, Ramirez-Pagan hopes something can be done.
“Teaching a 15-16-year-old how to make a pretty precarious left-handed turn on Westshore — it really keeps me up at night,” Ramirez-Pagan said.
Note from Tim: When referring to West Shore Boulevard, the city of Tampa uses two words. When referring to the Westshore area, it’s one word.