Hyde Park residents seek to slow traffic

For Rick Popino and other residents on Hyde Park Street east of U.S. 41, living in close proximity to Southside Village comes with some drawbacks.

There is a series of interrelated traffic problems the segment of the South Poinsettia Park neighborhood is facing, he said. Delivery trucks use the residential street to get to commercial businesses on Hillview Street and Osprey Avenue. Residents turn off U.S. 41 and use Hyde Park as a cut-through to get to Osprey, too.

Vehicles traveling down Osprey make it hard for residents to get off Hyde Park, and vehicles cutting down Hyde Park often speed and ignore  a stop sign in the middle of the 1800 and 1900 blocks.

“Probably 99% of the 20 houses on the block are in agreement,” Popino said. “There’s just way too much cutting through on this block from 41 onto Osprey.”

Last summer, Hyde Park resident Cynthia Collins reached out to city staff in hopes of addressing the speeding issue. There are already speed bumps on the street, but she said they’re too wide to effectively slow traffic.

“Cars and trucks really don’t have to slow down for speed bumps like ours,” Collins said. “It’s a shame.”

She thinks people are using Hyde Park to avoid the roundabout on Hillview, located one block to the north. She suggested other traffic-calming devices could help deter drivers from seeing Hyde Park as a shortcut.

Residents asked if the city might install larger speed tables or post signs preventing trucks from using the street for through traffic. Popino suggested installing tree islands — features jutting into the road, narrowing the lanes and forcing drivers to proceed more slowly along Hyde Park.

The city agreed to repaint the speed bumps on the street so they stand out more, but the other changes were not as easy to make. City Neighborhood Coordinator Nancy Kelly explained that, because of Hyde Park’s proximity to Southside Village, it wouldn’t be feasible to bar trucks from using the street.

She said the city processes requests for traffic calming devices and other street modifications on a neighborhood scale — not targeted down to just a couple of blocks. 

The city reviewed the street conditions in South Poinsettia Park in 2010, when it was determined Webber Street was the only area eligible for any modifications.

The neighborhood can petition the city to study the area again, but Kelly said solving the problem on Hyde Park might just divert it to a different area.

“If we put traffic-calming on one street, they’re just going to go down to the next street, then the next street,” Kelly said. “It’s just like a domino effect.”

“If we put traffic-calming on one street, they’re just going to go down to the next street, then the next street.” — Nancy Kelly 

Popino isn’t satisfied with the response he’s gotten thus far. He said the Sarasota Police Department agreed to station an officer in the area for a day, but beyond that, nothing’s really changed since the city became aware of residents’ concerns. The two blocks plan to circulate a petition, which he hopes will get the attention of city policy makers.

“We want to be heard,” Popino said.

Even if making major changes proves difficult, residents want the city to substantively acknowledge the traffic issues people living on the street are facing.

“Right now, we’d be happy to get a police officer out here for a few days enforcing the law,” Popino said.