BRADENTON, Fla. — Some Manatee County drivers are split over new roundabouts.
County officials say the new road pattern is meant to make intersections safer for drivers, but some residents aren’t convinced.
They’re concerned about the new mini roundabouts that were built at two busy Bradenton intersections.
Every day, Adam Sahhar and his best bud, Winslow, go for a walk from their neighborhood to the park.
But recently, the route has looked different because of a new mini roundabout at 51st Street West and 33rd Avenue Drive West.
“People come down this road pretty quickly, and now they’re confused, and it causes weird traffic back-up,” Sahhar said.
County officials say one of the goals of this mini roundabout is to alleviate traffic.
It’s one of two mini roundabouts built over the summer. The other is at the intersection of 51st St. West and 21st Ave. West.
The county says both are in high-traffic areas. For example, they estimate the one at 51st Street has between 8,000 and 10,000 cars traveling through it each day.
But people who live nearby claim it’s not a big problem.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because this was never a major intersection,” Sahhar said. “We’ve lived here for almost seven years. I’ve never seen a single accident here. And outside of the times when G.T. Bray (Recreation Center) has a big event where they could use some traffic control, there’s never a whole lot of traffic coming through here.”
County officials say they received public requests for crosswalks and complaints about speeding. They decided the best option was to build a mini roundabout, which they say will address speeding concerns and make it safer for pedestrians to cross.
But Sahhar says it’s making things more difficult.
“There’s no way for us to safely get across this way. And we’ve seen a lot of very confused drivers either come to a complete stop at the intersection — because it never was a stop sign before — or hesitate since it was always just a through road,” he said.
Adam said he and Winslow will continue their walks as they try to take the changes in stride.
According to the county, work on both mini roundabouts is substantially complete.
Julia Hazel
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