A safety suggestion for Morse Boulevard was dismissed Tuesday by Sumter County commissioners.
Community Development District 1 Supervisor Stephen Gerwin brought the idea before his board this past Friday at Savannah Center. He is concerned about the section of Morse Boulevard between U.S. Highway 27/441 and County Road 466.
“This particular segment of road is the only major road in The Villages where vehicular traffic, golf carts, bicycles and pedestrians share the same roadway, an earlier design shortfall corrected in later designs,” Gerwin said.
“In particular, the challenge is vehicle incursions from side roads into the multi-modal path at intersections with Morse. All too often, vehicles pull into the multi-modal path and stop to gain a better view of incoming traffic. This has led to multiple accidents between users of the multi-modal path and vehicles pulling into that pathway not yielding the right of way,” he said.
Gerwin suggested using high-visibility green lanes for golf carts and bicycles, styled after the same types of lanes used in St. Petersburg.
Gerwin’s fellow board members saw merit in the idea and agreed that it should be forwarded for consideration to the Sumter County Commission. Morse Boulevard is owned by Sumter County.
District Manager Kenny Blocker forwarded the suggestion to the commission, which swiftly dismissed it in a meeting Tuesday night at the Gloria Rowe Hayward Sumter County Service Center in Sumterville.
At that time, the board also noted that the Amenity Authority Committee last week decided to see if the Developer could be hired to make improvements to Morse Boulevard, possibly using amenity money to pay for the multimillion-dollar project. Sumter commissioners, who have refused to use county funds to pay for improvements for Morse Boulevard, adopted a “wait and see” approach on the AAC’s latest idea for the controversial roadway.