Twenty-five years from now, Jane will drive to work from North Naples to Southwest Florida International Airport, possibly in half the time it takes today.

Jane will have several choices to head north. She will be able to hop on Interstate 75, which could be 10 lanes wide by then. She might even pay a fee to use less busy lanes. She most likely will even have an exit exclusively for people going to the airport.

Or she might want to take a more scenic route up Livingston Road past Bonita Springs and Estero's gated communities to six-lane Three Oaks Parkway. From there she would take the Estero Parkway overpass, which will take her across I-75 to Ben Hill Griffin Parkway and then on to the airport.

The again, C.R. 951, which doesn't yet exist, could be a third option. She could pick up the road east of I-75 and head north to Alico Road and then take the entrance to the airport.

In about 20 years, when Lee County's population is projected to be 693,200, transportation projects under consideration now will become ever so important. Modern ways of moving traffic faster and making transit easier are already happening. Next year, motorists will be able to leave airport parking without stopping because toll transponders will be capable of paying for parking there. And the country's first queue jump is being designed for tryout in Lee County, which will let transponder users drive over a busy intersection without waiting for a green light.

But there's far more on the horizon. By 2025, transportation planners hope traffic-monitoring systems will tell motorists where to avoid congestion and accidents, video surveillance cameras will monitor major state routes and send information back to a traffic management center, and commuters can drive up to 35 miles on an uninterrupted expressway from the Charlotte County line to the interstate in Fort Myers. Likewise, there's a price for efficiency. Using tolls to pay for some routes can be expected.

These are some of dozens of projects Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization has listed for the future. There is no money set aside for most, but they are expected to happen, said Ron Gogoi, principal planner for the MPO board. This board looks at the big picture of transportation and takes long-term planning into account.

Marcel Wright, who recently moved to Fort Myers to retire, is counting on transportation options getting better with time because he plans on this being his final destination.

"I'm retiring here, so I hope they keep on top of the roads," Wright said. "I have been here in the winter before and you can't hardly get around; too many people on the roads."

Along with identifying conceptual projects, the county is faced with trying to fit in as much road improvement work as possible in each year's budget to keep up with growth. In a county that grew by 26,000 new residents last year alone, some say it's impossible to keep up with the added traffic. Commissioner John Albion ? often noted as the most transportation-savvy commissioner ? described the task.

So roads aren't outdated by the time they are built, planners do a design traffic report estimating how much traffic is on the road at that time, and then the road is built to meet needs 20 years in the future. For example, Lee County plans to build overpasses at the intersection of Summerlin Road and Gladiolus Drive, not because they're needed now, but what traffic projections show for the future, said Dave Loveland, manager of transportation planning for Lee County Department of Transportation.

In most cases, transportation planners try to anticipate road needs even beyond 20 years, Loveland said. For example, while county right of way is being acquired to widen Three Oaks Parkway to four lanes, extra land is being acquired now so it can be expanded to six lanes in the future.

"Can you ever catch up? That's the defining question," Albion said. "If demand is going to go up are we ever going to see more than 10 mph during busy season? My answer is yes. We can not allow development to occur unless it is at a certain standard. You won't fall fully behind if that is fully enforced."

That's where Smart Growth comes in. The initiative considers in advance what elements will create the most beneficial growth without hindering quality of life or future growth. Smart Growth encourages measures like "in-fill" development to make use of vacant land or revived abandoned structures to create denser commercial and residential areas.

In turn, more people are concentrated in one area, making better use of commercial areas, mass transit, sidewalks and creating less need for sprawl. The biggest benefit is that, in most cases, in-fill uses existing resources such as water and sewer systems, said Smart Growth director Wayne Daltry.

Encouraging developers to build up instead of sprawling out works toward the same effect, but it's frowned upon by developers because it costs more. As incentive, developers are at times allowed to build more units or allowed more uses for their property. Meanwhile, planners must ensure roads can handle the added traffic.

When a county transportation project is planned, Daltry is usually called in at some point, but "they are generally already on track," he said. Smart Growth is part of Lee County's transportation policies.

"Our biggest bottlenecks right now are places where we have known we've needed the lanes but it hasn't happened because of jurisdictional funding issues, like with the widening of I-75," Daltry said. Interstate 75 is state funded, and is not under the county's jurisdiction.

In the early 1980s, planners projected all north/south routes between Lee and Collier counties needed to total 22 lanes by the year 2000. But most people used I-75 during that time, and it got to be the most congested. So by 2000, there were only 12 lanes leading into the two counties, with Lee County now working toward 16.

Roads are widened or improved because road growth is tied to usage. For example, the planned I-75/Alico interchange may become a focal point because the county recently approved 4.3 million square feet of retail, 758,000 square feet of office and 1.5 million square feet of industrial uses for land surrounding it. The Florida Department of Transportation is rebuilding the interchange to accommodate the additional traffic. Businesses around the interchange will benefit because new north/south corridors are in the works nearby, such as the extensions of Ben Hill Griffin Parkway/Treeline, County Road 951, and Three Oaks and Metro parkways.

Aside from expanding the road system, there is another school of thought on handling population growth ? promoting taking cars off the roads. Dan Moser, chairman of the Lee County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, believes bicycle or foot travelers have little place on Lee County's roads.

"That won't change if the county doesn't change its views on transportation," Moser said. "If they continue going about business status quo, and don't start thinking hard about other forms of transit and making sure we have pedestrians and bicyclists accommodated, we are never going to get ahead."

The advisory board has been asking Lee County DOT to include a minimum of four-foot paved shoulders, or possibly bike lanes, with every major widening or road improvement project. Paved shoulders also give roadways a longer life span because the edges don't get broken off as easily, and gives motorists room for correction if they lose control. DOT director Scott Gilbertson has said the agency would continue to look into adding them with each project, but including them every time is too costly.

Moser, a cyclist, said he puts his life at risk every time he crosses a six-lane intersection, especially those with constant right turn lanes. So he's an advocate for building anything that takes more cars off the road, including a light rail system and beefing up bus transit.

"We cannot accommodate all those cars and keep assuming that everybody is going to be able to drive everywhere," he said. "We are focusing too much on the car, instead we need to think of other alternatives. This is just a vicious cycle that is getting us nowhere."

Meanwhile, LeeTran is trying to spread the core of bus services into local cities to form a transit authority. Transit officials have been pitching the idea to city councils in Lee. It's partly because LeeTran is so heavily subsidized, but yet continues to need more funding to cover the ever-sprawling county. A transit authority also would spread the cost of providing bus services and could improve efficiency, said Steve Myers, director of LeeTran.

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