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Tampa's Rush-Hour Sore Spot: Kennedy At Ashley

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Pedestrians crossing Ashley face dangers from drivers turning right but looking to their left to check oncoming traffic.

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By RICH SHOPES

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 30, 2008

TAMPA - It's 4:50 p.m., and traffic is backing up to the hump on the Kennedy Boulevard Bridge approaching Ashley Drive.

Fifteen cars make the left turn through the intersection, the last two after the light turns red.

Pedestrians step warily into the crosswalk. Some shuffle forward, pause, take another step and then stop, waiting for the driver to turn right or let them cross.

Ashley Drive and Kennedy Boulevard is downtown's busiest intersection, its most chaotic, and an especially tough nut for traffic engineers.

Time passed years ago for any meaningful solution to the increasing traffic, and now engineers can only tweak the timing of the various signals to help traffic flow.

In other words: It's about as good as it's going to get.

Things might have been different had engineers decades ago widened the boulevard and bridge to eight lanes or followed up with a second bridge - say, one block south at Jackson Street - to carry eastbound motorists.

But they didn't, and today it's tangle of crooked dotted lines, rush-hour backups and wary pedestrians.

"Forget it. I don't even take it," said Kendra York, who owns a hair salon on Grand Central Avenue. "I don't want to do the Kennedy and Ashley line dance."

Surprisingly, only 38 accidents, including one fatality, have been recorded from 2004 to 2007. Maybe that's because traffic slows to a crawl even without accidents.

A little hitch at rush hour can mean the difference between making the light and heading toward Interstate 275 or sitting tight with dozens of other exhaust-choked drivers.

Just before 5 p.m. last week, with traffic inching across the bridge as usual, a 40-foot tractor trailer, taking up three car lengths, approached the intersection.

Even before it turned, Ashley was filling up with cars. Traffic poured in from westbound Kennedy and the Colonial Bank parking garage. By the time the truck turned left from Kennedy there was room behind it for only two cars to get through the light.

Ten minutes later, another hitch: A woman was daydreaming as the light turned green. A couple of blaring horns jarred her back to reality, and her car lurched forward. But the damage was done: Only 12 cars made it through.

"I've sat there for five light cycles," York said.

Forty-six thousand cars funnel through the intersection daily, 28 percent more than six years ago. If conditions are right, 13 can make the left from eastbound Kennedy to northbound Ashley during one light cycle. Two more usually squeeze through right after the light changes to red.

The journey from green to red takes 17 seconds. A built-in, seven-second delay allows stragglers time to complete the turn before northbound Ashley motorists get the green.

Elsewhere, drivers turning right on red coast through the turn, oblivious to pedestrians. They're supposed to stop and turn only when the crosswalk is pedestrian-free.

"Being down there, you see a lot of people violating the right of way," says Tampa police Officer Kris Babino, who watches for red-light runners.

Pedestrian Courtney Dodd, who works at a commercial real estate company downtown, says she's been hit twice by drivers looking to beat the oncoming traffic.

The first time, six years ago, Dodd was crossing Ashley from the intersection's northwest corner. A car bumped her leg. She wasn't hurt.

The second time, two weeks ago, she was crossing Ashley from the southwest corner when a car approached the corner. The driver was looking left to make sure no cars were coming before completing the turn, but he didn't see Dodd in the crosswalk.

"The bumper tapped my leg, and he actually yelled at me," Dodd said. "I had the signal. He was looking left. And he yelled at me."

In recent years, engineers have lengthened the delay between cycles to give drivers time to clear the intersection. That helps only so much.

"The problem is, it's where a one-way street begins," city traffic designer Mike Scanlon said.

All eastbound traffic on Kennedy is forced to turn at Ashley because Kennedy becomes one-way westbound. Because most cars at afternoon rush hour are headed toward I-275, most of the traffic turns onto northbound Ashley.

What about making downtown Kennedy two-way? That's off the table, Scanlon says.

"You'd have a significant reduction in capacity. You just wouldn't be able to move that many vehicles. Two-waying of Kennedy would just kill the downtown traffic flow."

Drivers such as Amanda Frush, a senior at the University of Tampa, say the best option is to avoid the intersection altogether.

"I hate that intersection. It's too much traffic," she said.

To get to I-275, she takes the Cass Street Bridge, then hangs a left at Ashley.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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