To the editor:<\/p>\n
Much to my surprise, I saw that last week the Sanibel City Council was scheduled to once again consider spending money on a feasibility study for developing a roundabout at the \u201cFour Corners\u201d (Periwinkle Way, Lindgren Boulevard and Causeway Boulevard). I truly cannot believe that even more money could be spent on investigating an ill-conceived \u201csolution\u201d to the traffic congestion at the Four Corners, especially after seeing the results from the two previous studies!<\/p>\n
The previous roundabout study detailed there just isn\u2019t enough land mass and circumference available to have any impact on improving traffic flow. The last study for widening the Sanibel Causeway to three lanes was obviously a waste of money given the existing bridge width and state, federal and county road width parameters. This was clearly not a solution even before the study was conducted at a cost of $30,000.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d be interested more in understanding exactly \u201cwhy\u201d this has become an issue of gigantic proportions when it hasn\u2019t changed in over 20 years. Everyone coming and going from Sanibel knows what it\u2019s like and yet they still come. Go to any seaside town and discover that every one of them has a traffic backlog issue. When there is one way on and one way off, one must expect traffic. End of study. Have you considered:<\/p>\n
\u2013 Allowing only so many people to visit Sanibel on a daily basis?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Constructing a \u201cfly-over\u201d for those exiting the island?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Installing a traffic light timed accordingly?<\/p>\n
I am quite sure none of those ideas would be acceptable for a whole host of reasons to the various interests on the island. Just as I am sure that a roundabout will not function for the welfare of island residents, bicyclers and walkers, nor EMS, or construction vehicle traffic, delivery and service trucks, including tractor trailers, etc. To spend even more money on a roundabout feasibility study, in my opinion, is irresponsible.<\/p>\n
I am also of the opinion that Sanibel resources can be better spent on saving the island from erosion, preserving the culture and island atmosphere, restoring our fresh water ponds, and assisting local businesses with growth-friendly policies and low-interest business loans to make Sanibel even more attractive to visitors and residents alike. We\u2019ve been in recovery mode for way too long not to focus on things that will help the island return to its roots. From the days of the water ferry, to a wooden bridge to a concrete span causeway, we have attracted people even though they had to work at getting here. They still came in spite of dealing with some form of congestion. Let\u2019s call this issue over and done for now. We have more important things to accomplish.<\/p>\n
Bill Daly<\/p>\n
Sanibel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: Much to my surprise, I saw that last week the Sanibel City Council was scheduled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-123871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}