Residents living near Kanner Highway say speeding vehicles and growing traffic noise are creating safety concerns and disrupting daily life in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Kanner Highway is one of Martin County\u2019s busiest roadways, with drivers frequently traveling above the posted speed limit, according to nearby residents.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPeople are doing 60 to 65 to 70 miles an hour down this road,\u201d said Banyan Bay resident Michael Centrella.<\/p>\n
Some neighbors say the issue has become so common that it has earned a nickname within the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone in the neighborhoods is now calling this ‘Kanner Speedway,’\u201d Centrella said.<\/p>\n
Residents from the Banyan Bay development met on Tuesday to share their concerns, saying speeding and traffic volume continue to increase with little relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, it\u2019s only going to get worse,\u201d one resident said during the gathering.<\/p>\n
Neighbors say drivers exiting Interstate 95 often fail to slow down as they transition onto Kanner Highway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get off 95 and there is no slowing down. Their mentality is we\u2019re still on a major highway,\u201d said Banyan Bay resident Craig Colagen.<\/p>\n
Residents also say the traffic has made the area significantly noisier, especially at peak hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe speeding does create a lot of unnecessary noise,\u201d Centrella said.<\/p>\n
Cheryl Miller, who also lives in Banyan Bay, said some vehicles contribute to the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re speeding and they have modified their vehicle so they are making more noise,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to really raise our voices to be heard [outside] because the sound is amplified from the road,\u201d added Colagen. “We find that two and three times a week they have drag races from this point because they like the sound amplifying off the one wall that we have and it comes into our neighborhood.”<\/p>\n
Neighbors say they want Martin County and the Florida Department of Transportation to take action to slow traffic and reduce noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be some more traffic lights to allow these communities to have access to Kanner [Highway] as well and not be endangered by trying to have to pull out in front of a speeding car,\u201d Centrella said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see more traffic enforcement on this stretch. I\u2019d like to see some barrier to sound,\u201d Colagen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mitigation needs to start with enforcing the laws that are in place. There are speed limit laws. There are sound ordinance laws,\u201d Miller added.<\/p>\n
WPTV News reached out to Martin County Commissioner Stacey Hetherington. While she was unavailable Tuesday, plans are being made to discuss the residents\u2019 concerns next week. WPTV also contacted the Florida Department of Transportation and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n
Residents say they hope changes come soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just unacceptable, so something has to give and change,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Centrella said the issue goes beyond inconvenience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a quality of life thing. It\u2019s a safety thing. It\u2019s only a matter of time until someone gets killed here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Portions of this story were assisted by artificial intelligence tools and reviewed by a WPTV journalist to ensure accuracy, clarity, and adherence to editorial standards.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents living near Kanner Highway say speeding vehicles and growing traffic noise are creating safety concerns and disrupting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[62398,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-125888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-fell-through-the-ice-wwny","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125888","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=125888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}