Slow going in the center turn lane

Not sure if this is blog-worthy, but it’s on my mind.

It has to do with the center turn lane on southbound U.S. 41 turning east at State Road 44 in Inverness. The Burger King corner.

I know this center lane rather well. Just about any Inverness resident is familiar with it.

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It’s always known for stacking lots of vehicles. It’s also known for a long green arrow light, so that the stack empties with nearly every signal change.

The Florida Department of Transportation has a contractor resurfacing S.R. 44 between U.S. 41 and the Withlacoochee River. The $22.2 million project includes changing the center turn lane to two left-turn lanes. That will eliminate the long stack in the center, thus ensuring an easier flow of north-south traffic.

That’s the idea, anyway.

Hate being a fly in the ointment, but I can already see some challenges.

As with many government projects, the problem they had when designing the intersection improvements isn’t the same one they have today. There are far more vehicles turning left onto S.R. 44 than just a few years ago.

Unfortunately, that’s just an observation. I couldn’t find actual traffic data for the turn lane, other than that’s a rather busy stretch of U.S. 41 between Apopka Avenue and S.R. 44: about 30,000 vehicles a day.

I couldn’t help but notice in the last year or so that the stack is getting longer, and the green light is shorter. While the traffic signal timing is likely construction-related, there’s nothing that would significantly increase the number of cars in the center turn lane. 

Well, except for one: the Suncoast Parkway.

We always wondered if motorists would take the parkway-to-44-to-75 route through downtown Inverness. Well, simply from observation, certainly seems there's merit to that scenario. That would certainly explain the significant uptick in left-turn traffic.

I spent a few minutes Tuesday at the 41/44 intersection standing in the shade, watching traffic. It was around 1 p.m. I counted 26 vehicles stacked in the center turn lane waiting on a red light, nearly back to Apopka Avenue. The green arrow goes for 25 seconds, allowing about seven or eight vehicles to turn left; less, if there’s a truck leading the pack.

The section where FDOT is placing the twin turn lanes carries about seven vehicles per lane. So…14 total in the turn lanes on a red light when this is all said and done. Right now, we have upwards of 20 or more at any given time.

It's more than a long wait to turn left. The current center turn lane has very little non-S.R. 44 traffic because one side of U.S. 41 is commercial, and the other side is Cooter Pond. Since the center lane can stack all the way back to Apopka if necessary, those cars aren’t spilling into the travel lanes.

That won’t be the case once the center becomes two left-turn lanes. As I said…14 cars total in those two lanes (less if one vehicle is a semi). Where are the additional vehicles going to sit while waiting to get into the turn lanes? A southbound travel lane, that’s where.

Now. There is a little trick the locals are familiar with, and a few people are starting to catch on. Instead of sitting in that long stackable lane, waiting four light changes to turn left, stay in the southbound lane just past S.R. 44, then take the median turnaround. Probably not in the highway safety handbook, and if anyone asks, this wasn’t my idea. I’m not the only one who regularly does the median two-step.

No big message today. I just see this every day and felt like writing about it. Sometimes, blog life is that simple.

Have a giddy Wednesday, friends.

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