Cape Coral neighbors say drivers use their street to dodge traffic

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) — A single dot on a map can be easy to miss until it represents the street outside your home.

Cape Coral's speed study is filled with hundreds of concerns from residents who say their neighborhood roads are being used like main roads. On Northeast 17th Avenue, neighbors say the problem isn't just how fast drivers are going but drivers coming through in the first place.

One neighbor is making sure the city knows this road isn't an escape route. It's a neighborhood.

People who live on Northeast 17th Avenue say too many drivers are using their street to get around something else. Mary McCormick has lived there for 14 years.

"Everybody racing down this road, and it's just nonstop during three, between three o'clock and six o'clock," McCormick said.

She says the afternoon rush doesn't just stay on Hancock Bridge Parkway. It spills into her neighborhood.

"There were 499 cars going in one direction on this road, going north," McCormick said. "They were all cutting through our neighborhood to avoid the light up at Hancock and del Prado."

McCormick took a video outside of her home documenting the traffic. That's why she's reported to Cape Coral's speed survey twice and added a note.

Across the street, Sydney Caniglio sees the same problems.

"When Hancock gets really backed up and that light turning on to Del Prado gets a little bit hectic, people will use our road as a cut through," Caniglio said.

On the survey, it looks like a dot. In the neighborhood, it's people walking dogs and families in their yards.

"This is a working-class neighborhood," Caniglio said. "We have a lot of families here, so there are a lot of people walking their dogs. We have kids and stuff."

The study ends Friday. With more than 500 reports from the survey, that comes down to a speeding concern every .3 square miles in the city.