OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Commuters are finding a stretch of roadway from I-75 to 301 on SR 200 extremely frustrating.

However, there seems to be some confusion regarding the construction, it’s a not a City of Ocala project, it falls under the auspices of the Florida Department of Transportation.

“I actually met with the FDOT today,” said City of Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano. “I know that the reason they wanted to do it was because of safety concerns. State Road 200 has had many major accidents over the last several years. The increase in traffic has caused even more concerns. We’ve had pedestrian fatalities, serious crashes and people speeding because a lot of our tickets that we’re giving out come from SR 200.”

The FDOT believes by implementing the medians and planters they would be able to address some of the incidents and vehicle accidents, said Marciano.

“The person that I met with from the FDOT, her main focus is safety, she’s a safety administrator, and her whole job is to make sure that these highways are safe,” said Marciano. “They have studies that they put in place. ‘Does this work on reducing serious crashes?’ I told her as the mayor, we’re the ones who are getting all the push back. We’re the ones that hear from all of our citizens how frustrating it is.”

The mayor from his own personal experience, and from what he’s heard from citizens, is that there is a great deal of frustration because of the construction of the medians, when a motorist is trying to find a point of access to turn into a business, the commuter is unable to make a left turn, and finds themselves having to travel a distance, sometimes a half-mile to make a U-turn to go back to that business.

“Those U-turns are very difficult to make, sometimes my truck doesn’t even fit, so I have to back up, and sometimes the signals and the lights are not allowing enough time for enough people to get through,” said Marciano. “So, you’re getting these significant backups, so it’s frustrating. They told me that they would look at that, is there a way to make some adjustments to the U-turn radius, and would there be some more access points that they can look at to cut into the median to help with some of the frustration.”

Many citizens have told Mayor Marciano, if they miss a turn or pass a business, they’re just going past and they’re not coming back.

“My concern is also for the businesses on 200, is this going to effect them, where they’re now going to lose business,” said Marciano. “They said there would be two items that they would look at, the U-turn radius to be able to make U-turns and also could they adjust some of the light signals and are there any spots where they can create some access points, so you don’t have to drive all the way down to make a U-turn.”

The mayor also asked about the black light signals that have been installed, and they are called pedestrian-hybrid beacons.

More articles on SR 200 construction project. . .

New pedestrian signals and safety upgrades coming to Ocala’s State Road 200 – 352today

Big changes on SR 200 in Ocala: What you need to know – 352today