News Briefs

+ Radar signs, new speed-limit signs up
Five radar signs were set up Dec. 22 in various locations on Siesta Key, Chris Hauber, a traffic engineering and operations specialist, has reported, though one was turned off this week after a report over driver confusion.

That sign will be put in another spot, Hauber said. County staff also has been negotiating with the Florida Department of Transportation to place a sixth sign on Midnight Pass road near Commonwealth Drive, Hauber said. That sign had not gone up as of late last week.

Hauber programmed the signs Dec. 28. Like similar signs on Orange Avenue, they flash the speed of an oncoming vehicle. One sign is located on Higel Avenue just south of Givens Street; two are on Beach Road — one near the tennis courts and the other at the parking lot exit on the opposite end of the park; and the fifth is located on Midnight Pass Road, just south of the Stickney Point Road intersection.

A sign erected on Ocean Boulevard by Pass Key Road, facing northbound traffic, had made drivers think they could speed up to 35 mph while they still were in the 20 mph Village zone, Hauber said. Deputies had asked that that sign be relocated.

County staff had promised last fall that the signs would go up in conjunction with the posting of a reduced speed limit on Beach Road between the Ocean Boulevard and Midnight Pass Road intersections. However, according to Walt Olson, vice president of the Siesta Key Condominium Council, the new, 30 mph speed limit signs did not go up until after he contacted the Traffic/Mobility Office staff Jan. 3.

The Condo Council won approval from the County Commission last fall to lower the speed limit, to make it easier for pedestrians to cross Beach Road, especially during high-traffic times.

The solar-powered units collect data about vehicle speed, Hauber said. County staff will be able to download that data if it is requested by the Sheriff’s Office, for example, in an effort to increase effectiveness of island patrols.