A lot of you provided some great feedback after my coverage of the traffic woes that have stalled Fort Myers Beach.
While safety certainly is the forefront, there’s another challenge: Every hour a worker wastes in the gridlock, the further away Estero Island gets from completing its mission of recovery and redevelopment from 2022’s Hurricane Ian. Thousands and thousands of hours lost.
Some of it, but clearly not all of it, is tied to jaywalking and pedestrians crossing Estero Boulevard at the Crescent Street chokepoint adjacent to Margaritaville and nearby, instead of using the overpass.
“It’s a cool walkover,” Town Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt said this past week. “It’s a beautiful view, but you’re really helping your fellow residents and residents in keeping that traffic moving (just) by taking an extra minute or two to go over the pedestrian overpass as opposed to stopping traffic.”
What other traffic hazard is being faced in Fort Myers Beach?
In Ian’s aftermath, there are plenty of additional hazards as Beach reader Jan Fleming pointed out to me after reading In the Know the morning of Jan. 22 .