TAMPA, Fla. — A longtime Tampa resident who takes Florida Avenue every day is frustrated by the traffic at a busy intersection: Busch Boulevard. 

“It’s crazy here in the morning,” said Paige Fernandez, who has been making the commute there for decades.

“I’ve been traveling this route maybe 20 years. And the traffic has increased and people are a little bit less considerate,” Fernandez said.

That route usually takes her down busy Florida Avenue, which many drivers take as an alternate to I-275.

But when she tries to make a left onto Busch Boulevard, she says can be difficult to get into the left turn lanes.

“The two through lanes back up, Fernandez said. “And people are trying to either cut into the turn lanes to get around it or they don’t realize they’re in a turn lane and then they’re blocking the turn lane.”

She feels the signs don’t make it clear that drivers are in a turn lane until it’s too late.  They then have trouble getting back over into the through lanes.

“It just makes a lot of confusion here. Then people get angry. They start honking their horns. They climb the median. It gets really bad in the morning,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez would like to see the Florida Department of Transportation consider adding signs to make it more clear to drivers there is a turn lane ahead before they get to the intersection.

“If there is better signage that it is a a turn only, maybe if they put those white little plastic poles distinguishing the turn lane, then maybe people won’t cut over,” Fernandez said.

FDOT officials said that their traffic ops team reviewed crashes at the intersection and found that some are caused by the maneuvers Fernandez describes during the morning rush. However, they did not amount to warrant any changes to the signs or barriers there.

FDOT officials added they could request assistance from law enforcement during the morning rush to enforce the rules and traffic flow at the intersection.