Longboat community aims to turn tables on speeders

The line of motorists waiting at Bay Isles’ south entrance gate on a recent Monday morning was five cars deep. 

Vehicles paused at the gated-community’s guard house included a delivery van, a plumber’s work truck and three personal cars.

It is this kind of traffic that has prompted members of the Bay Isles Association, the governing board of the 19 homeowners associations where 1,600 people live, to vote in December to install four speed tables on the north and south end of Harbourside Drive, Bay Isles’ main road, where the posted speed limit is 30 mph.

“We don’t want to do anything to disrupt,” said Bob Simmons, president of Bay Isles Association. “We just want people to slow down.”

Some residents say speeding on Harbourside Drive has been an issue for a number of years where part of the road is four lanes and the other part is a winding two-lane stretch. Back in 2011, a safety committee was formed by the association to look at the issue, Simmons said. To date, there have been no serious traffic accidents inside the development.

A year after the safety committee was formed, four electronic speed monitors were placed along the road to alert drivers to how fast they were going. Simmons said those monitors proved ineffective in slowing down traffic.

Now, the association has approved something far more likely to grab drivers’ attention.

The planned speed tables are expected to be installed sometime in February and should cost around $20,000, which will be paid for out of association dues, Simmons said. Exact locations for the speed tables on the privately owned roads have yet to be determined.

The board opted for speed tables instead of speed bumps because they are gentler and not as jarring to drivers.

Still, some living in Bay Isles question the need for the traffic-calming devices. 

George Spoll, who sits on the board of Bay Isles, said speed tables were unnecessary and voted against their installation.

“This attempt to protect people is absurd,” he said.

Longboat Key Fire Rescue Chief Paul Dezzi said speed tables slow down the response time for first responders, but said he is not opposed to their installation.

“(I’m) not against them because they are speed tables that allow emergency vehicles to maneuver over them without coming to an almost stop,” Dezzi said in an email.

David Novak, who has lived in Bay Isles for 14 years, said he recently surveyed residents of the Bayou homeowners association in Bay Isles about the speed tables. Fifty percent responded to his questionnaire, he said.

Of those who responded, “93% said they were against them,” said Novak, who added he would rather see the three-way stop at the main gate realigned than speed tables. To prove his point, Novak pulled over to the side of the road to watch the intersection. Four out of the five cars that went through the intersection at Harbourside and Bay Isles Parkway failed to stop.

Novak said it’s rare for speed tables to be installed these days.

Still, the Florida Department of Transportation is putting eight temporary speed tables around the St. Armands shopping district this year. FDOT plans to study the effectiveness of the traffic-calming devices, which could lead to permanent installation.