‘Solving’ the mystery of the traffic light at Six Mile Cypress and Daniels in Fort Myers

Happy New Year! Yes, we rang in 2025 a week ago and while there’s much to look forward to and to celebrate, we are still facing a historic traffic crisis in Southwest Florida.

A new month and a new year means more vehicles on our roads courtesy of tourists and snowbirds. Expect major congestion from Marco Island to Cape Coral from now until the end of April.

I noticed a pretty significant change this week (compared to before the holidays) when I was driving around Fort Myers. I don’t get down to Naples and Collier County much, but I am sure it’s noticeable there as well, if not worse.

For the first “Bumper to Bumper” column of the new year, let’s focus on what I consider one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to traffic here: left-hand turns at intersections. Knowing my journey will include making a left turn at a major intersection − often multiple times − can cause much anxiety.

The left-turn lane anywhere in Lee and Collier counties to get on Interstate 75? Forget about it. Those lines waiting for the light to turn can be some of the longest in Southwest Florida right now.

Drilling down a little more to a specific location, there’s one intersection in Fort Myers, on Daniels Parkway, that has people talking on social media. It’s the intersection at Daniels Parkways and Six Mile Cypress.

It is one of the most congested traffic areas in Lee County and keeping traffic moving there can be a challenge. And when Spring Training starts in mid-February it becomes even more of a nightmare. The Minnesota Twins’ stadium is on Six Mile Cypress, less than a mile from the intersection.

We reached to Lee County and asked specifically about the traffic light management at the Daniels and Six Mile Cypress intersection.

According to a Lee County spokesperson:

The intersection of Daniels Parkway and Six Mile Cypress Parkway is coordinated with a Daniels system from Metro Parkway to Gateway Boulevard.  The Daniels corridor has different signal cycles for AM Peak, Mid-day, PM peak and two PM plans that run different cycle lengths and different green signal times.  These plans and green signal  times are based on traffic volumes and how many cars can stack in the lanes, including turn lanes, during the lights.

As part of the challenge, the traffic volumes east and west on Daniels can be two to three times as heavy as the traffic volumes north and south on Six Mile Cypress Parkway. That means the east-west lanes, and the associated turn lanes, must get a greater share of the green signal times so that traffic doesn’t block lanes. In turn, that means the red lights on the north-south lanes are longer and greens are shorter. Think of each signal cycle as a pie chart and it must be divided up into green, yellow and red times for each lane. Further impacting Daniels are an average of 35 pedestrian activations crossing Daniels per day and an average of 6.5 emergency vehicle preemptions per day, which impact traffic signal cycles.

We appreciate the response and quick reply from Lee County.

Last year The News-Press and Naples Daily News hosted a traffic roundtable with experts from both counties. We learned the counties are using technology to help in the fight against traffic jams.

“There’s algorithms that we have set up (in Lee) that based on certain traffic volume changes the timing plans,” said Rob Price, the deputy director of the county department of transportation. “It’s called Traffic Responsive Programming, and that’s something that the county uses extensively on our major arterial roadways.”

That, Price said, is already making a major difference for drivers in Southwest Florida.

At the meeting Anthony Khawaja, Collier’s chief engineer of traffic operations, growth management division, said Collier County has invested in an intelligent transportation system, connecting all traffic signals via a fiber optic network to the Traffic Management Center in order to monitor what the signals are doing. That way, he said, “intelligence is at the intersection.”

The intersection can adjust signal timing and respond to demand, keeping green lights from going stale and jamming up drivers in the crossing left-hand lane, hoping to turn, Khawaja said.

“The intelligent transportation system that we have, it allows our operators to take a look at the traffic signal controller so that they often see what the signal is seeing, see what the camera sees, and make adjustments,” he said.

What do you think? Is it working or not?

What’s happening in Collier County?

Help is on the way in one location.

FDOT is currently designing improvements to Interstate 75 (I-75) at the SR 951 (Collier Boulevard) interchange in Collier County.  The improvements for the I-75 at SR 951 (Collier Boulevard) interchange include reconstruction of the I-75 southbound on- and off-ramp connections and the northbound on-ramp connection to the mainline lanes. The southbound and northbound off-ramps will be reconstructed to create additional infield space to install single-lane, 200-foot radius loop ramps in the southwest and northeast quadrants.

The northeast quadrant loop ramp will be connected to, and accessible only by, a direct flyover ramp from northbound Collier Boulevard with a starting point south of the Davis Boulevard intersection. This single-lane flyover ramp will carry traffic over Beck Boulevard and a reconstructed I-75 southbound on-ramp.

A single-lane flyover ramp extension will carry I-75 southbound traffic over Davis Boulevard to a new signalized intersection at Collier Boulevard and Business Circle North. This ramp will extend along the western side of Collier Boulevard.

The $97 million project is expected to be completed in 2016.

Poll results

We asked: What are the main causes of traffic congestion you have observed in SWFL?

The No. 1 answer? High volume of vehicles (53% of votes.) That was followed by Poor Road Infrastructure (15%), Other (14%), Traffic Signal Timing (12%), Traffic Crashes (4%), Road Construction (2%).

Thanks to everyone who participated.

New poll

What is the average duration of your daily commute for work?

Take the poll HERE.

What’s your idea for a good poll question? Email mbickel@gannett.com

SWFL traffic: What’s on your mind?

Your emails are pouring into my inbox and I love it. Keep them coming. Remember, it’s OK to vent and tell me what is driving you crazy when it comes to our traffic crisis. Of course, your observations and ideas for helping to solve the crisis are always welcome!

Email anytime to mbickel@gannett.com.

Photos and videos: Same thing. Please email multimedia content to mbickel@gannett.com. If the video file is too big to send in email, we will figure out best way to make the transfer.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: When will the diverging diamond interchange in Fort Myers be completed

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