Henry Avenue - Current Conditions
Henry Avenue is a thing unto itself. You can't think about it in just one way.
On the one hand, it has homes fronting directly onto it, apartment houses with large numbers of school children, farmland with cows grazing, school crossings with a 20 MPH speed limit (often ignored), etc.
On the other hand, the existing traffic levels are regularly quite high. Every year since 2017 there has been Annual Average Daily Traffic of over 10,000, and LEVEL OF SERVICE = E (where A = best, F = worst).
The Minton Road Study found that the Minton/Henry intersection had 81 accidents, more than any intersection between Palm Bay Road and US192, more even than the infamous Eber intersection, which is hidden behind the I95 overpass, at the bottom of a hill.
Since Henry was extended to Edgewood many years ago, it has become a route that many people start out on when traveling to downtown Melbourne, the hospital area, the beaches, etc., so as to avoid traffic on US192. Traffic jams regularly block access from side streets (Sylvia, Edward, Parker, Clifton, Trend). This blockage is well known to city officials and they have band-aided the problem by placing "Do Not Block" signs alongside the road, and on the road surface.
Here is a video that shows how traffic jams up on Henry near Hollywood, making access to the side streets difficult. Residents report that this happens regularly. As you watch, imagine trying to turn left out of one of those side streets. Or imagine an ambulance or fire truck trying to get in.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
The point to bear in mind is that Henry is NOT the kind of road you would want to add a lot of high-speed traffic to. It is already close to failure at times.
