Timing along the East Lake Road/McMullen Booth Road corridor has been studied extensively over the years. Although it may seem like the signal timing changes on a regular basis, it does not. However, traffic patterns and volumes do fluctuate from day to day. In the past, the timing has been adjusted to accommodate increasing traffic volumes entering Pinellas from Pasco County. Some of the congestion was alleviated when intersection improvements were made to Keystone Road. It was, however, short-lived. The Trinity Area, as well as other parts of Pasco County, continues to grow and the influx of traffic into Pinellas County has increased significantly.
Changing the timing to allow more green time southbound at Trinity Blvd (even by a few seconds) increases the back-up two-fold at Keystone Rd. The effect is the westbound traffic from Trinity can’t get through the intersection, because of the back-up. All we can do is try to make the movements equal in delay at these two intersections. The only change made recently was to hold traffic a few more seconds southbound at Trinity in order to meter the flow. This creates a gap between the two intersections and allows the westbound traffic from Trinity to clear the intersection. It also facilitates gaps for motorists wishing to exit the Crescent Oaks Subdivision. This change did not affect the overall travel time for motorists along this corridor.

We have adjusted the phasing and timing as much as possible. Unfortunately there is nothing more we can do to our signal system to improve travel times. We are at the highest timing cycle (250 seconds) allowable. The roadway is at capacity. Consequently, widening the road from 4 to 6 lanes is the optimal solution to alleviate congestion. With this in mind, staff is currently working with the Pinellas County Planning Department to determine the implications of changing East Lake Road’s current designation as a Constrained Roadway. This policy was put in place in the mid-1990’s when the local community opposed the planned six-lane road and it prohibits the necessary improvements.

It is nearly impossible to exit the Crescent Oaks Subdivision and turn south any time of day. It is also difficult to turn north. Unfortunately, this is the only gate into Crescent Oaks - it would have been helpful to have another entrance out onto Trinity Blvd. Anyway, I have seen over a dozen accidents here in the short 3 year span that I have lived here. I think it will take a death before any action is taken which is quite sad. Why do we have to wait for that to happen??

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