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Oldsmar Seeking Traffic Slowdown

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Oldsmar recently made streetscaping and intersection improvements along St. Petersburg Drive, near State Street.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: November 30, 2007

OLDSMAR, Fla. - OLDSMAR, Fla. - St. Petersburg Drive's glory days may soon return.

Officials hope recently initiated traffic-calming measures will spark an influx of new businesses along a roadway on which motorists are traveling slow enough to notice what's available.

Now, most are just whizzing past.

Next month's opening of the city's new library as a destination location, will serve as the catalyst for growth.

Bob Cyr, assistant public works director, remembers just 17 years ago, before there was a S.R. 580, St. Petersburg Drive was one of the city's main roads. For some reason, however, there was never much commercial development along the drive, he said.

In recent years, the S.R. 580 thoroughfare took much of the through traffic away from St. Petersburg Drive, which became more of a neighborhood street.

The city recently completed a streetscaping project that links State Street and St. Petersburg Drive, said William Proses, city engineer.

Sidewalks were installed along St. Petersburg Drive from Town Center to State Street. A brick paver crosswalk, and a four-way stop sign at the corner of State Street and St. Petersburg Drive is designed to help foster pedestrian traffic in the area, the city engineer said.

State Street also received a major streetscaping facelift.

When the library opens next month, at St. Petersburg Drive and Dartmouth Street, it will serve as an anchor, bringing many more people to the drive. City officials hope increased traffic will entice other business people to join the small selection of mom and pop businesses that now dot the route.

The next step will likely be installation of a brick paver crosswalk at the corner of St. Petersburg Drive and Dartmouth Street to make the route safer for pedestrians traveling to the library, Proses said.

In addition, the speed limit along St. Petersburg Drive has been reduced from 35 mph to a cruising speed of 25 m.p.h. between Tampa Road and Dartmouth Avenue, as a traffic calming measure.

The idea is to create a pedestrian-friendly downtown redevelopment district from State Street to St. Petersburg Drive, Proses said.

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