Cape Coral neighbors say rush-hour shortcut is making their street dangerous

CAPE CORAL, (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 neighborhood roads are being used like main roads. On Northeast 17th Avenue, neighbors say the problem is not always just how fast drivers are going. It is why so many drivers are

coming through in the first place.

 

People who live there say the street has become a cut-through for drivers trying to avoid traffic near Hancock Bridge Parkway and Del Prado Boulevard.

 

Mary McCormick has lived on Northeast 17th Avenue 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 does not 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 said she counted those cars using video from outside her home during a three-hour window on a Friday afternoon. She also showed WINK News a video of one driver passing her by driving through the grass.

 

“What was the big hurry for them to need to pass me in someone’s yard?” McCormick said.

For her, the issue is bigger than traffic. It is about what happens when a residential street starts functioning like a bypass.

 

“This is a neighborhood. It’s not a speedway,” McCormick said. “People shouldn’t just be racing down our road like they do to avoid a light.”

 

McCormick reported her concerns to Cape Coral’s speed study twice. She said the road is not built for the amount of traffic she sees during rush hour.

 

“You can’t just walk your dog or, you know, kids can’t play on the street or ride your bike without all this traffic on the road,” McCormick said.

 

Across the street, Sydney Caniglio sees the same pattern.

 

“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.

 

Caniglio said the speed limit on her street is around 25 to 30 miles per hour, but she believes some drivers are going much faster.

 

“Definitely, they’re anywhere from like 35 to 40, 45 miles an hour,” Caniglio said.

 

She said Northeast 17th Avenue is a working-class neighborhood with families, dog walkers, bicyclists and kids. That is what makes the traffic feel dangerous.

 

“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.”

 

Caniglio said the road does not feel completely safe for children, walkers or bikers.

 

“To be honest, 100% safe? No,” Caniglio said. “I definitely would not let my kid play outside unsupervised.”

 

She also said she worries when turning into her own street because of how fast cars are moving behind her.

 

“I always have this fear I’m going to get rear-ended because I have to turn right before the light,” Caniglio said. “People are just going so fast.”

 

Cape Coral’s interactive speed study map shows more than 500 reported concerns across the city, according to a WINK News count. That is roughly one speeding concern every 0.3 square miles in Cape Coral.

 

The map is community-reported data, not a final engineering study. A dot does not automatically mean a road is unsafe, but it does show where residents say they want the city to take a closer look.

For McCormick and Caniglio, those dots represent what they see outside their homes.

 

“It’s not hard to find concerns from the community,” McCormick said while looking at the map. “A lot of problems.”

 

Caniglio said better signage, traffic calming or changes to the light timing near Hancock and Del Prado could help.

 

“I think definitely better signage,” Caniglio said. “I’m not even sure where the speed limit sign is on this road, or if we have one.”

 

She also said congestion at the nearby light is part of the reason drivers cut through the neighborhood.

 

“If there’s anything they could do to improve that light, that would be great,” Caniglio said. “The cycles are kind of terrible, so the congestion gets pretty bad.”

 

McCormick said she wants the city to understand that the problem is not just one road or one complaint.

 

“People not stopping at stop signs. They’re not obeying the speed limits,” McCormick said. “They’re cutting through neighborhoods that they shouldn’t be cutting through to avoid lights and other traffic.”

 

Cape Coral’s speed study ends Friday. WINK News asked the city what department will review the data first, whether any quick safety improvements could happen after the study closes, and how the city will prioritize roads with the most concerns.

 

The city told WINK News it is looking into those questions.

 

McCormick said if nothing changes, she and her neighbors will keep speaking up.

 

“We probably just keep complaining to somebody,” McCormick said.

 

For the people on Northeast 17th Avenue, the study may be ending, but the concern is not.

 

The map may show dots. They say their street shows the problem.