Traffic Control Officers Begin Today

It took me 2.5 Hrs to drive from Publix – Time Square Saturday night. That is approximately 5.5miles. I left at 3:30 for a 5pm reseveration at Margarittaville. There was no accident on Estero! If we have resource officers working then they must have decided to go on a Donut break! FMB needs 2 lanes going north and 2 lanes going south! Our restaurants can forget my business during season. B.S. or Naples will get my business!

My suggestion is to have the Mayor and the City councilors take the crosswalk training course, have them suit up in the uniform and be required to do traffic control at Margaritaville and at the downtown light. For 2 weeks. Maybe then, they will make a rational decision.

Ian not only robbed FMB of their downtown, it also robbed local decision makers of their common sense and intelligence.

2 1/2 hours to get across the island last night

Well this didn’t help.
I’m sitting on my porch on Driftwood Lane , 3 miles down from the light and Northbound traffic is at a standstill. 6 pm.
Probably will sell a lifelong dream.

Is the walkover available for anyone to use? I thought it was just for the convenience of Margaritaville guests. Is there any signage to guide pedestrians to use it? And barbed wire isn’t necessary— I think some temporary posts with ropes strategically placed to guide pedestrians would help a lot. I know people are on vacation to have fun, but I don’t think most people expect a free-for-all when it comes to crossing traffic.

Has anyone noticed.! Since the hurricane .There are not to many vehicles stopping at our cross walks.To allow pedestrians to cross estero.especially at the south end.Befoe someone gets killed.How about asking the sheriff’s dept.to start enforcing the law and give out tickets.

Sounds good. Just no barbed wire…but maybe an electric fence.

The Margaritaville traffic light was the worst approval the town did! Isn’t there a walk way over Estero Blvd anyways. What a waste! Traffic is out of control.

Margaritaville Was not a good idea. They are terrible neighbors. I drove down Estero Blv.and was shocked to see they put up a traffic light almost directly under their walkway.WHY??? I will never again go to that end of the island. Also How many pedestrians will be hit by cars at night because of the turtle lights {very Dark}

As Yogi Berra once said….”No one goes there anymore because it’s too crowded”

“The town is also training some of its staff to help.”
Curious as to what staff is being trained to be traffic cops? Some of the town staff has had to do a lot of things not in their job descriptions since the hurricane. During search and recovery efforts after Ian some staff had to do and see some horrible things. Were they compensated fairly then, and will that happen now? Or is the town still trying to stiff them by not allowing them to be paid fairly for overtime? The town has already lost some really good people from their staff because of the way they were being treated, and I would hate to see more leave because more “duties” keep being added to their jobs.

Need to kill all the lights. Cars from north wanting to exit island should be made to go under bridge and off island at Margaritaville. No left turn a Times Square–If you want to go north, turn at crescent, go under bridge to Old San Carlos and north! A multi story parking garage at Matanzas bridge or where Chapel of Sea once stood or where old city hall once stood would help. Any chance of a future ferry off Main Street? If something isn’t done soon residents will be relocating and we can anticipate people going elsewhere. How about charging $6 a car at either end of island, but exempting residents?

Along with partnering with law enforcement control jaywalking, how about a new reasonably priced multi-level public parking structure where the old BonAire mobile home court was at the bottom of the bridge. Then add continuous regular pickup and drop off to that facility using the tram or trolley system. Stopping all the hodgepodge parking in every nook and cranny could only help diminish traffic and pedestrian loads.

Construct an 8′ aesthetic-pleasing fence (or barbed wire – ha) from Times Square (or from Old San Carlos) past the Margaritaville property for a couple of blocks on both sides of Estero Blvd. and down Crescent Street. Place it where the sidewalk meets the curb. Remove the Crescent St light. This would funnel pedestrians to the walkover from the north and south.

This discussion proves the biggest concern on the island is traffic. Town Council still refuses to address it in any meaningful way.

If traffic is stopped each time apedestrians want to cross like it was done before it will be worse

We were in the bottleneck yesterday. Not quite sure what two folks will do to help move traffic along exactly, but sure hope it helps.

Yesterday (1/25)v raffic was backed up from Estero and San Carlos all the way back to 1.2 mile south of Publix. We decided to turn around and head south and go around on US 41 to get to Doc Fords. This is NOT acceptable! It took an hour to get our to Doc Fords for dinner. Why? How? Poor planning. Just like the 10 year project rebuilt the Estero Blvd. According to engineers at our condo, it could have been done is less than half the time. Owners of condos and timeshares are sell them back to the association. We are contemplating doing the same. If we cannot orderly get on and off the island, FMB loses its value to us. Cry Havoc.!

Maybe those working the detail can collect the data to validate or invalidate the traffic study used to place the new light and time with the existing?

$68,200 for one month?? does this not seem ridiculous?!!!!

Hopefully the officers make pedestrians wait to cross the road. The past officers stopped traffic every time someone walked up and wanted to cross. If they have to wait long enough they may use the crossover.

Need a crossing guard at Times Square. Also need to address the pedestrian crossing where there aren’t cross walks. Pedestrians cross from 5th street across the traffic at the base of the bridge on Island to go to Times Square/Estero going north. Vehicles do that too where it right turn only to go over the bridge off island (and the lane they’re using is for opposing traffic.

I wonder how much of the bottleneck is caused by cars leaving times square, going south on Estero, then making a left turn at Crescent, in order to take the bridge off the island

Prior to Ian, there was a traffic officer at the Time Square light during peak season. This is no different. Two things might help the Crescent light issues: adjust the timing for the Estero flow side and add signage for pedestrians to use the elevators and walkway to cross. We actually saw a man stop Estero traffic, there were no cars on Crescent and no other people at the intersection, he walked from the beach side of Estero to the other, then pressed the elevator button to go up. The elevator was right behind him when he stopped traffic and walked across the street!

Qhy do we need a traffic light there when Margaritaville supplied a very usable, nice, convenient walkover? It definitely slows down traffic.

Clown show – welcome to FMB
Where 20% occupancy shuts down Estero blvd yet retarded Town Council wants to add more Condos and more parking – WTF is wrong with FMB leadership ?

Since Estero Blvd is a county road, why is the Town having to pay for the Sheriff’s deputies to move traffic on it? Also, it would be great if officers could synchronize their stoppage of traffic in area between the new and old lights so pedestrians could move about in that rectangular area of Estero Blvd. going in any direction to cross the road.

That’s Awesome! We are arriving today!!