Old Rant: May and San Marco Intersection

Dear Elected Officials,

            It seems to me that you are missing a great opportunity to fix the “Failed Intersection” at May Street and San Marco.  Once you have denied the 7-11 Building, buy the lot for the county and then make the following changes:

Get rid of the traffic lights

Put in a traffic circle

The cars approaching the circle on San Marco from either direction should have full STOP signs (which also mean yield to cars in circle)

Cars approaching on May Street (the longest back-ups) will have a YIELD sign (so they proceed through the intersection more quickly.

Make West San Carlos ONE WAY toward the library from San Marco

Make Dismukes Street ONE WAY from Route 1 to San Marco

            All this could be done without major disruption of traffic to library or park and with improved traffic flow.

            See enclosed map.  Give to traffic engineer.  Start Soon.

            Please pass this on to Architectural Review Board.  I cannot find an email address for them.
           
            If this should go to someone else, please let me know to whom I should send it.


Part Two:

Dear Editor,

With the property at May Street and San Marco Avenue sold to 7-11, St. Johns County will have to do some serious thinking about how to evacuate Vilano Beach, Porpoise Point, and South Ponte Vedra during hurricane season.   The decision over the gas station will be tied up in court for years.

As configured now, the May St. and San Marco Avenue intersection can take 15-20 minutes to transit on weekends.  Imagine how bad the back-up will be if every resident of Vilano, Porpoise Point, and South Ponte Vedra has to evacuate. 

For an astounding amount of money, the county could build a new bridge, similar to the Vilano Bridge, but located near the airport, connecting to A1A.  That would also take years.  Or they could claim eminent domain over the property at May St.and San Marco Ave.  Then they could pay a reasonable amount of money to design a working intersection to facilitate evacuation and travel to and from the beach, and in a reasonable amount of time.  Which do you think the local tax payers would prefer?