OVIEDO, Fla. — Oviedo residents on Spectrum News 13’s listening tour asked us to look into growth they said was out of control and leading to traffic headaches.

We reached out to Oviedo city leaders to see what they were doing to alleviate traffic problems in the city.

Cheryl Keller says it can take up to 30 minutes just to drive what should be about a five minute drive to her neighborhood grocery store.

“It’s just getting to be unbearable,” Keller said. “You can’t go any place without having to sit in traffic for 20 or 30 minutes.”

Keller has lived in Oviedo for nearly three decades, but she says it’s just in the last few years — with nearby UCF expanding and several new developments in Oviedo — that traffic has gotten out of hand.                          

“Since 1993 it has increased; however, in the last five years it has tripled in traffic,” said Keller.

We looked through the city of Oviedo’s master traffic plan, which graded the level of service for most of the city’s stretches of roadway. Most got a C or D, and some even F’s.

Oviedo city leaders say at many intersections, drivers were sitting through three and even four light cycles.  A city manager says in 2016, they added timing technology to lights across the city that made traffic flow better.

Officials also say they are working with the Florida Department of Transportation on several projects, including the widening of State Road 434 through town, but it will likely be several years before those projects will give drivers relief.

Keller is now reaching out to her neighbors on a “Save Oviedo” campaign to fight another proposed development.

“I think Oviedo has just grown so much, and they’ve concentrated everything in one area, and that is a problem, and nobody thinks ahead of time where is this traffic is going to go,” said Keller.

A spokesperson for UCF says they share their long-term growth plans with surrounding communities so those communities can plan for the effects from university expansion.​