TAMPA, Fla. — The city of Tampa says they are receiving complaints from drivers about how hard it is to make a complete U-turn along a stretch of Himes Avenue, not far from Raymond James Stadium.
The City of Tampa updated a stretch of Himes Avenue from Columbus Drive to Kennedy Boulevard this past summer to help reduce accidents.
Jean Duncan, Tampa's transportation Director, tells ABC Action News that Himes Avenue was identified as one of the highest accident corridors in the city.
Duncan says in order to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes, they removed many of the left-turns across four lanes of traffic.
The city was given federal funding to make improvements along the corridor by restricting left turns and/or through movements.
Businesses nearby, like Empire Barbershop, say the no-left-turns hurt business because drivers can't have direct access to the shop.
They say they consistently see drivers not completing this turn.
In an email, Duncan wrote, "driver decisions are simplified and the number of conflict points at which a crash could occur is reduced significantly."
However, the new updates have made U-turns difficult for some drivers.
Our cameras captured drivers starting to make a U-turn and then put their car in reverse to complete the turn. Some know this maneuver as a broken U-turn.
The city says they don't want to prohibit the ability to make a U-turn, so they build a few "turnouts" near the U-turns so that cars and trucks can more easily navigate the turn.
You can see in this photo of what this will look like.
The city is waiting on the contractor's availability to add these features.
