Drivers continue to cram roads in Collier

It's winter season traffic, when residents and visitors cram the roads in a gridlock that never seems to end.

At Checker Cab in Naples, dispatcher Greg Lindquist can say exactly which routes make company cabbies wince — anywhere from exit 111 (Immokalee Road) on Interstate 75 to the toll booth at Alligator Alley in eastern Collier County, he said.

"In other words," Lindquist said, "the whole city."

In Collier, those who drive or watch traffic as part of their professions agree: Traffic seems thicker this season than in recent years. Lindquist likens this season's swell to the 2000 winter season before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

High season is back "with a vengeance," Lindquist said, as more people are making Southwest Florida their winter vacation spot.

Sgt. Kyle Clark of the Naples police department sees the same comparison.

"Congestion this season has been very, very close to what it has been pre-Sept. 11," Clark said. "In 2002, we didn't see as many people down here. In 2003, we saw more."

But recent traffic crash statistics in the city show a slight drop, Clark said. In January 2003, there were 85 roadway crashes; this January, there were 80.

Often, those crashes can be related to traffic congestion, Clark said. It isn't unusual for drivers groaning in gridlock to accidentally nudge their bumpers into each other. The area from Golden Gate Parkway to Harbour Drive on U.S. 41 is one such accident hot spot, Clark said.

If there is more traffic in Naples, it is as part of a larger trend, said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for automobile club AAA South.

The use of AAA South's "Triptik" trip planning service has increased 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the fourth quarter of 2003, "a huge increase," Laskoski said. AAA South serves Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

Jim Lavin, a division manager of the Naples AAA office, knows how that increase is being felt locally.

"Traffic is radically increased," Lavin said. "It's a much larger season than last year."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Lavin's office served more Naples-area clients looking to travel within Florida, he said. Now, about half of them are out-of-state clients. And, by Easter, he expects the number of out-of-state clients will soar to 65 percent.

"It's just about back to where it was" pre-Sept. 11, he said.

Debbie Tower, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation based in Fort Myers, describes U.S. 41 as "very heavily traveled." The DOT does take traffic counts of area roads, but this season's counts won't be known for another year, she said.

The DOT does know that certain segments of U.S. 41 in Southwest Florida see an annual average of 40,000 to 50,000 vehicles per day. Certain segments of I-75 are traveled by some 50,000 to 70,000 vehicles each day.

Because those are annual averages, they reflect an average of peak season traffic and the slower off-season. But even the gap between busy and slow is closing, Tower said.

"We're seeing increasing demands on our roadways year-round," she said.

At the DOT, those demands translate into more telephone calls about roadways.

"We are noticing that we do indeed get more calls from the public that relate to how they're traveling and where they're traveling," Tower said.

At Checker Cab and for the public, those demands mean longer travel times.

A trip to Southwest Florida International Airport from the Naples area currently averages an hour-and-a-half, Lindquist said, and 40 minutes is the standard to get anywhere around town. As for Lavin, his daily work commute time has doubled from 10 minutes to 20 since season began, he said.

At AAA, many of the drivers Lavin meets aren't too upset by the delays and congestion, he said. They might remark on bumper-to-bumper I-75, but the congestion doesn't surprise them, Lavin said.

"I think everyone kind of expects that," he said.