To many, Vero Beach, Sebastian traffic seems worse; or is it just a matter of perspective?

So you think traffic in town has gotten worse?

If so, how much worse?

Perhaps it’s just a matter of perspective.

Amid complaints of Indian River County traffic slowdowns in January 1996, Press Journal reporter James Kirley started to quantify traffic issues in a way most of us can relate to: He drove three main county routes and measured how long it took to get from Point A to Point B.

In January 1999, Kirley re-drove those routes late morning and late afternoon: U.S. 1, between the Brevard and St. Lucie County lines; all of Indian River Boulevard, and State Road 60, from State Road A1A to Interstate 95.

“In three years, the time it takes to traverse certain Indian River County roads has barely changed,” wrote Kirley, who retired in 2013 after 30 years with this news organization. “Drivers wading through Indian River County traffic are not likely to believe it really happened.”

After 25 years and a county population increase from about 99,000 to 174,000, I figured it was time to drive those routes again.

I wasn’t looking forward to it. One of the reasons I moved here almost 40 years ago is because I never liked sitting in traffic.

I had no idea what I’d find. My suspicion: What took me 10 minutes would take 15 now. A 15-minute trip is now 20. Everything seems 5 to 10 minutes longer.

I asked a couple of people who have been around a while and who have special insights to see what they thought I'd find. Granted, I didn’t give them time to analyze how much longer, or shorter, drives might take.

Brian Freeman is director of the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, whose board, which includes county commissioners and other elected officials, is responsible for traffic planning.

Lack of patience worse problem than lack of lanes?

Freeman, who has been here since 2003, off the top of his head told me (after an unrelated meeting) he thought — given the past 25 years of intersection and road widening projects (such as 66th Avenue and U.S. 1 south of Fourth Street) ― travel times might be close to the same as 1999.

Then I asked Doug MacKenzie, sergeant of the sheriff’s traffic unit, who fondly remembers a county of less than 60,000 when he started at Vero Beach High School in 1980.

While he thinks the county has done a good job of limiting wait times at traffic signals, he quickly guessed travel times increased by three or four times.

“Vero Beach is not the Vero Beach I grew up in; it’s just changed,” MacKenzie said, as we discussed the nearly tripling of the population over the past 45 years.

“People are more impatient now,” he said, noting a perceived increase in aggressive driving. “That has a lot to do with people being late. Everybody’s busy; that’s the biggest excuse I see.”

At least that’s what he hears from people he pulls over for speeding.

It reminded me of a recent trip heading east on Oslo Road.

I got in the left lane, traveling slightly above the speed limit, to pass a long lawn-maintenance truck and trailer east of 43^rd Avenue Southwest. But as traffic got more congested, I found a motorist tailgating me, moving his hands and head in frustration as if he had somewhere to go quickly.

I was blocked from trying to get to the right to let him pass. By the time we got to 27^th Avenue Southwest, he pulled into the right turn lane, looked at me and shot me a middle-finger salute.

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MacKenzie offered some advice:

“If you left five minutes earlier, you would not be late and maybe you would not be getting stopped by the cops,” he said.

As the adage goes, patience is a virtue — something I've learned over the years, having learned to drive in the New York metropolitan area and its unpredictable traffic congestion.

MacKenzie's advice reminded me of what a local taxi driver told Kirley 25 years ago.

"You've got to drive entirely defensively," said Phil Alexander, who had driven around the county for five years, continuing a career he began in Chicago in the early 1950s. "My theory is you have to believe that everyone is going to do the wrong thing."

While MacKenzie and I have our own traffic perspectives, I also chatted with a gentleman whose take was more aligned with Freeman’s.

“I think you guys have one of the greatest traffic patterns and ease of movement of anywhere I’ve ever seen,” Kevin Mayes, 66, said at a meeting last year when he urged Vero Beach not to eliminate lanes of State Road 60 through downtown.

“This time of year, (traffic has) picked up a bit, but it is seasonal,” Mayes, who moved to a manufactured housing neighborhood west of Vero Beach about two years ago from upstate New York, told me earlier this year.

Taking traffic amenities for granted

He notices it mostly on SR 60 between 58^th and 43^rd avenues, where Sam’s and Walmart pack shoppers in. It was a problem in 1999, too. In 2022, it was the seventh most-traveled section of road in the county at 32,398 average trips per day. That's more than the estimated 31,000 a day on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was struck and collapsed recently in Baltimore.

“(SR 60 near Walmart) definitely has picked up traffic (over two years),” Mayes said, adding the Ocean Drive-Sexton Plaza area, which reminds him of a high-end version of quaint Woodstock, New York, also gets busy. “(But) it is not too bad.

“I like the traffic patterns,” he said, citing appreciation for amenities we might take for granted, such as turn lanes, arrows at traffic signals, lighted street signs and better-lit streets.

Coming from relatively rural Rosendale, New York ― population 5,844, and founded in 1844 — Mayes makes sense.

What many of us care about is being able to plan ahead for trips. If we think it's going to take 15 minutes, it had better not take 30. And while our maps apps can help, my research showed they're not always reliable.

Next week, I’ll provide results from my replication of Kirley’s 1999 study. Until then, you can try and guess how the traffic has or hasn’t changed.

You can take our poll at tinyurl.com/roadsurvey1.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.

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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sebastian, Vero Beach traffic getting worse? We started to take look