Subject


FDOT District One, in partnership with the Central Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, studied and developed ways to improve mobility, safety, quality of life, and economic vitality along the South Florida Avenue (SR 37) corridor between Ariana Street and Pine Street in Lakeland. A Master Plan was developed through community engagement and coordination with local government agencies and other community partners. In cooperation with the City of Lakeland, FDOT studied current and future traffic and developed an alternative roadway configuration for South Florida Avenue. FDOT will conduct a lane elimination test for approximately one year. The Road Diet test will consist of a lane closure of the outside travel lanes for both northbound and southbound directions from Ariana Street to Lime Street. South Florida Avenue will be reduced from the five-lane configuration to a three-lane configuration by using a concrete traffic separator to close the outside lanes. Once the Road Diet is in place, traffic counts will be taken on South Florida Avenue, adjacent side streets and parallel streets. This will help to assess the feasibility of a future road diet design option and evaluate the impact of a reduction in travel lanes to the roadway’s level of service and the associated impact of traffic diverted to the City’s network of parallel reliever roadways.