Letters to the editor

Charge $10 tolls to through traffic

Make Gulf of Mexico Drive a toll road with cameras at each end taking pictures of license plates, like the system used for cars that run red lights. Modify the software to assess tolls and fines, if tolls are not paid. Tolls and fines should be high to modify driver behavior: tolls $10 and fines $100. 

Assess tolls only if drivers pass through Longboat Key in less than two hours during high-traffic periods. Use strategically placed electronic signs to notify drivers of the tolls and encourage them to use U.S. 301 instead.

This system would alleviate traffic not only on LBK but also Tamiami Trail, Ringling Bridge and Fruitville Road, as well as on the west side of the Cortez Bridge.

Strong support from LBK residents is needed to get this done quickly. LBK residents must make their voices heard to get this low-cost, low-maintenance traffic solution implemented quickly. Not much to lose. Just try it!

George Shaps, Longboat Key

We elected the wrong guy

I do not know Jack Daly, but I am certain he is a very fine man.

He stated his top priorities in his next term as our newly re-elected Longboat Key commissioner are “continuing updates to the comprehensive plan; focusing on plans for the development of a cultural center; and oversight of burying island utilities.” He makes no mention, comment or suggestion about our horrendous traffic issues.

We have obviously elected the wrong person. Hopefully we’ll do better next time.

Douglas Pascal, Longboat Key

There’s no room for growth on LBK

Give the Observer its due: It’s a great paper, and it never hides its opinions.

The Longboat Observer’s editorial on Longboat development (“Whittall’s Longboat Lesson,” March 16) makes a fair point: While Longboat residents prize freedom, property rights on the Key are limited.

But that’s a feature of Longboat Key, not a bug. The amenities of life here are a scarce — and fragile — natural resource. The value of cooperation is essential on a little spit of paradise not 1,000 feet across.

As someone who has been away for four years, I am shocked at the length of the traffic jams both at the north, and now at the south ends of the island.

God forbid we have a hurricane without extensive notice.

There is no more room for growth — unless you want to restrict people’s liberty to drive a car and make SCAT mandatory.

Robert P. Forbes, New Haven, Conn.

Artists will be, out in the cold

With the surprise closing of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts at the end of May, I wonder how many of my fellow artists are disturbed to discover that the Ringling College of Art has no plan in place to provide art facilities or instruction until the proposed Longboat Key Cultural Center is completed. I am told that the necessary fundraising and actual building of the center will require at least three years to complete.

I urge the college and members of the LBK commission to keep the arts alive on LBK by providing a temporary home for its artists.

I encourage my fellow artists to join me in this effort by contacting Janna Overstreet at [email protected].

Robert Goldfarb, Longboat Key

Limit traffic to keep cyclists safer

I drive on Gulf of Mexico Drive almost daily. Over the past 20 years, the change we now observe has developed.

At one time years ago, we had comparatively little auto traffic to contend with and lighter traffic on the “bike path” now also known as the sidewalk.

Then came more people, a lot more people, until one might compare life on Longboat to an attempt to pour 10 gallons of gasoline into a 5-gallon can. The county or state responded with a law that provides for a stiff fine if auto drivers don’t maintain a certain distance from bikers. Mind you, the law didn’t say for bikers to maintain their distance, the onus was placed on the motorist.

I am a person who doesn’t like to make a complaint unless I have a plausible solution. In this case, my solution, at least temporarily is this: During the season, from December to April, simply close down one bridge by raising the span with a single provision for emergency operation.

This solution would solve our immediate traffic problem and would really not hurt anyone. We would soon readjust to the loss of that bridge and perhaps give the Department of Transportation time to fix the Cortez bridge, which is in need of repair or replacement.

Then, this too would provide some respite for all law enforcement along the gulf-side keys. A true win-win.

Rolland S. Freeman, Longboat Key