FORT MYERS, Fla. — Fort Myers City Council approved a traffic study for Winkler Avenue between Colonial Blvd. and Veronica Shoemaker Blvd Monday night. This comes after police responded to 97 crashes so far this year.
Betty Gavilan has lived at the Retreat Apartments for about four years now. Bryan Siddens who lives lives further down Winkler Ave. in Lindsford homes and said he’s gotten creative with getting out of his subdivision.
“If I can’t make that left turn, then I’ll just make the right turn and go down and do a u-turn somewhere, which that’s not all that safe either,” he said.
Gavilan said with all the new construction in the area, t’s getting harder to get out of her apartment’s parking lot.
“100 times worse,” she said. “It’s even worse with this new one that just started opening.”
James Gilyard has lived on Winkler for five years. He said he’s concerned for the kids getting picked up and dropped off by the school bus on winkler.
“Now it’s hundreds more houses out here, and there’s hundreds more children, also,” he said. “I don’t see what the problem is with putting a light at this corner.”
Councilman Johnny Streets requested the city manager and department of transportation conduct a traffic study to see what this area needs. He said they need to move now before one of the crashes turns fatal.
“We have to be on top of this. We can’t sit back with that idea of let’s see wait and see what happens,” he said.
Siddens said if the city can’t install traffic lights or stop signs, they should consider other options.
“There’s several hundred homes just in this subdivision with no left turn signal. So, a roundabout here would be fantastic,” said Siddens.
Now its up to the city manager and department of transportation to decide what happens next.
