Kathy McGhin speaks at the town hall workshop about traffic downtown. The awning at her business has been torn by semi trucks attempting right turns several times, she said.

Kathy McGhin, owner of the B Posh boutique store, regularly sees traffic outside her store that makes her hold her breath. 

Whenever a semi truck tries to make a right turn at her intersection of Howard Street and Ohio Avenue, it will usually hit either a sidewalk, an awning or a car, she added. 

Sometimes, she said, she worries for the safety of pedestrians crossing the street.

“You’ve got a safety issue,” she said to the Live Oak City Council.

The city council, joined by representatives of the Florida Department of Transportation, held a workshop about downtown traffic at 1 p.m. Thursday at City Hall. 

“It’s a dysfunctional situation in downtown Live Oak,” said City Council President Keith Mixon.

One issue, spoken to by Live Oak Police Department Chief Buddy Williams, ismalfunctioning and out-of-sync traffic lights. 

The intersection of 11th Street and Ohio Avenue (US Highway 129) is one of the largest culprits, he said. 

“It shuts down Live Oak, Florida,” Williams said. “It’s a quagmire.”

Lights on the northbound and southbound sides are not in sync with each other, he said. 

The sensors on the road that communicate with the lights do not work properly, he added, and need to be replaced. 

“Traffic is horrendous,” Williams said.

An abundance of semi trucks driving through downtown creates another problem, Mixon said. The trucks have difficulty making some turns, he said.

McGhin said her business’s awning has been ripped off two times in three weeks by semi trucks attempting the tight right-handed turn at her intersection. 

Chief Williams said an attempt had been made to ask industries transporting goods by truck to use alternate routes that bypass downtown. 

Councilor Jacob Grantham suggested providing an alternate route and making it inconvenient for semi trucks to travel through the city center. 

The council also mulled the idea of discouraging truckers from going through downtown and especially making right turns there, through signage or other educational campaigns. 

The Florida Department of Transportation has ways of communicating the message with the trucking companies the city doesn’t, Mixon said in a phone interview. 

Mixon brought up the possibility of contacting GPS companies and asking them to modify their devices or apps, specialized for truckers, to route them around downtown. 

One way to help alleviate traffic problems, said one audience member, would be to change the left-turn-only lane at the South Ohio Avenue (US Highway 129) and Howard Street (US Highway 90) intersection. 

Mixon agreed, saying in a phone interview changing the left-only lane into a left turn and forward lane would help the flow of traffic.

Jamie Driggers, a program management engineer from the FDOT, listened to the concerns and possible solutions discussed at the meeting.

The next step is to communicate with the FDOT about how to address downtown traffic issues, Mixon said.

Driggers said his department would listen and help the city, but Live Oak plays a critical role in finding solutions.

“It’s your community, your vision, our partnership,” he said.