U.S. 1 narrowing based on false data

Regarding the article “US 1 redesign causing some traffic headaches” (Friday), it would be easy to dismiss the misguided decision to limit U.S. 1 to four lanes to the garden-club mentality that pervades most of the Tequesta Village Council’s decisions.

I, however, suspect that that attitude was greatly encouraged by misleading data from the Florida Department of Transportation, which had an agenda. The media published traffic study data declaring the “daily average” traffic volume on U.S. 1 to be 24,000 vehicles, well below the design limit for a four-lane road. There was no indication of the time period over which the traffic was monitored. If it included low-volume weekend days, then the average is artificially low for a normal weekday. There was also no hourly distribution of volume on a weekday.

For those of us who travel U.S. 1 in Tequesta daily, it would be absurd to assume only 16 vehicles a minute stream onto U.S. 1 from Martin County between 6-9 a.m. and race to leave from 3-6 p.m.

The volume in those time periods far exceeds the “design limits.”

We will never know whether FDOT’s lack of data candor or the village council’s lack of appreciation for the reality of everyday traffic on U.S. 1 in Tequesta was innocent or deliberate. All we know for sure is that we’ll all be putting up with a mess. DENNIS MYERS, TEQUESTA