PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Drivers in Pinellas County are frustrated with a series of traffic lights in a busy area.


What You Need To Know

  • Drivers say the traffic light timing is off on Pasadena Avenue from 1st Avenue South to Central Avenue

  • It can lead to backups on the northbound side at all hours

  • FDOT is now checking on the timing

They say the timing is leading to backups on Pasadena Avenue.

“I come through here five or six times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. I say things under my breath every time I go through,” said driver John O’Grady.

O’Grady reached out to Spectrum Bay News 9 about the traffic light timing on Pasadena Avenue from 1st Avenue South to Central Avenue.

“The traffic backs up. In the height of season, it takes two light changes just to get through the intersections,” O’Grady said.

He says the traffic light for northbound traffic at 1st Avenue South will turn green, but the next light just ahead at Central Avenue stays red, causing cars to be stuck in both intersections.

Traffic backups on Pasadena Avenue are common from 1st Avenue South to Central Avenue. (Spectrum News/Tim Wronka)
Traffic backups on Pasadena Avenue are common from 1st Avenue South to Central Avenue. (Spectrum News/Tim Wronka)

“People line up and you look at the person next to you. They shake their head. They know, too,” O’Grady said.

But O’Grady says it wasn’t always like this there.

“It was great. But something changed. I think with the hurricanes, the lights changed and they reset them. But they didn’t reset them properly,” O’Grady said.

Florida Department of Transportation officials say they will now check the signal timings there this week.  

O’Grady hopes that it’s a simple fix to get traffic moving better along Pasadena Avenue.

“Just to time it correctly so that the traffic won’t be backed up heading northbound," he said. 

Is there a traffic issue we can help with? Ask our Real Time Traffic Expert Tim Wronka.