State Road 37 South Florida Avenue Road Diet

The original five lanes were non-compliant and did not meet today’s safety standards. The 8.5 ft. wide lanes were much narrower than the Florida Department of Transportation’s (FDOT) 11 ft. wide state road requirement.  A typical tractor-trailer today is 8.5 ft. wide so the narrow lanes left no margin of error and were unsafe.  The reduced traffic pattern has been studied for effectiveness over the past 18-months by more than 90 sensors to see how the lane realignment impacted the one-mile Dixieland corridor.  

The temporary, lane reduction test allowed the widening of lanes to standard 11 ft. wide widths, while providing possible space for bike lanes and future sidewalk expansion. If the three-lane configuration is made permanent, about 18-ft of asphalt would be repurposed to enhance walkability, bike-ability and shop-ability through the emerging Dixieland corridor.  Possible improvements include wider sidewalks, bicycle lanes, landscaping, outdoor dining, accessibility improvements and neighborhood architectural markers. 

City of Lakeland Transportation Planner, Chuck Barmby said, “The unsafe conditions of South Florida Avenue through the Dixieland corridor raised concerns and moved FDOT to initiate the South Florida Avenue traffic study through the Dixieland area in 2016. This was a “first-of-its-kind” study in Florida that included traditional transportation analyses, and innovative components such as a marketing analysis, a day-long community planning meeting (known as a charrette), a week-long design studio within a storefront on the corridor, public meetings, and interviews with stakeholders in the study area.” 

The 2016 study also evaluated potential development sites, parking inventory, and transportation alternatives including the initiation of the South Florida Avenue road diet to expand lane widths to meet today’s safety requirements. The City of Lakeland created a storyboard that helps give background information on the project. The storyboard can be found here: http://bit.ly/LakelandRoadDietTest. 

Barmby said, “We continue to get a lot of questions regarding the impact to neighboring side streets. We are starting to compile the test data that we will soon be sharing with the community. It is also important for the community to know that the Citrus Connection established a new bus route called the Peach Line that does not have any stops in the one-mile lane reduction area, so travelers are not hindered by frequent bus stops through the corridor.” 

The testing phase is complete and now FDOT is compiling data from the monitoring sensors.  A public meeting hosted by the City of Lakeland and FDOT will take place at the RP Funding Center on July 11 to share the study results and to gather community input.   

For more information on this FDOT project, visit swflroads.com/sr37/arianatolime.