PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla -- If you’ve ever driven near PGA Boulevard and U.S. 1 chances are you’ve experienced the frustration of sitting through light after light with what feels like very little progress.
Palm Beach County officials in the engineering department say they are trying to do something about the traffic concerns in this area and that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) recently installed new adapters that can keep an eye on real-time traffic.
“Basically I drive this intersection every morning and it’s getting worse and worse and worse,” said concerned driver Jerry Alvarez.
Red light, green light, it doesn’t seem to matter what color it is.
“We were backed up over there yeah I live in the Gardens but it’s just crazy this corner,” said Nicholas Cosentino.
Those who frequently drive along PGA Boulevard and U.S. 1 in Palm Beach Gardens say this is what traffic nightmares are made of.
“These are big roads, these aren’t small little back roads, these are roads that should be able to handle this kind of volume,” Pelican Car Wash manager Ed DiBenedetto.
The Palm Beach County Traffic Department says there’s currently no set time for each signal at the intersection, but that they are giving preference to eastbound and westbound lanes, which can get pretty congested when the PGA bridge is up.
“Sometimes I sit and there will be 4 red light changes before I can even get up to the intersection it’s a mess,” said Tammie.
NewsChannel 5 decided to test it out. We took a couple of timelapse videos that shows just how backed up the roads can get.
“It's gridlock, bumper to bumper,” said DiBenedetto.
It’s even worse during peak times. County data shows up to 2,200 cars drive through the intersection each hour and about 28,000 every single day.
“So they need to do something other than what they are doing now, it’s not working,” said Tammie.
Pelican Car Wash on the southeast corner says they feel the brunt of driver’s frustration.
“You know that makes for an unsafe environment, you know when people are willing to cut through parking lots in order to get a few hundred yards further it’s not good,” said DiBenedetto.
For those who obey the traffic laws, but are getting restless they are hopeful changes are on the way.
“This is like the 4th or 5th call to see how it was, you know how it was doing, I told them they need someone out here to look at it,” Alvarez.
The Palm Beach County Engineering and Public Works Department says it relies on drivers to call about issues like this before they send staff to look at an intersection. Right now they are in the process of reviewing the area and hope to have a solution soon, but don’t have an exact time frame of when you can expect any changes to be made.
To contact the PBC traffic department CLICK HERE or call 561-684-4012 or 561-684-4018. You can email them at ENG-ActionCenter@pbcgov.org