St. Petersburg crosswalk upgrades: City improves school zone safety

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg officials are upgrading crosswalks near St. Pete High School after a student was hit by a car and critically injured in May.

Student crosswalk crash details

The backstory:

According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, a 15-year-old student pressed the crosswalk button to activate warning lights near Ninth Avenue North and 25th Street North in May, started walking, and a driver hit and critically injured him.

According to SPPD, the driver was cited for not exercising care to "avoid colliding with any pedestrian or any person propelling a human-powered vehicle."

Now, city crews are installing safety upgrades to crosswalks on Ninth Avenue North at 25th Street North and 26th Street North behind the school. Crews refreshed the paint on the crosswalks to make them brighter, and installed taller, fluorescent signage. They also added a second set of flashing lights to better attract drivers' attention. Next week they’ll add fluorescent stripes to the poles and visors on top of the lights to direct the light better for drivers.

"Now we have double the lights to flash toward the motorist to let them know that a pedestrian is in the crosswalk," Cheryl Stacks, Transportation Manager City of St. Pete, said. "So, we think that that's really going to help catch people's eyes."

Zachery Palmer, who lives nearby, thinks it already has.

"I've noticed that they have slowed down a little bit sooner as we are trying to cross now," Palmer said.

Additional work includes widening sidewalk ramps at the intersections and repairing broken sidewalks along Ninth Avenue North.

"We do see that speeds are relatively high on Ninth Avenue North, and it is a residential area, so there's, you know, we would like people to be able to feel safe and comfortable to cross the street. We have students who need to cross this street here at the school, so we want to make sure that we're providing an environment and infrastructure that gives everybody the best opportunity to stay safe," Stacks said.

 Community traffic safety reaction

What they're saying:

Ryan Becker, who lives on Ninth Avenue, hopes the upgrades do just that.

"The more in your face it is, the signage for the cars, the sooner they stop, the more willing they are to stop, the safer it is for the crossing kids," Becker said. "I think it's a good addition to the neighborhood."

The upgrades will be done by the first day of school, and Stacks has a message for everyone as that day approaches.

"Stay alert and have some situational awareness. So, just making sure that you're staying alert to the fact that people are going to be walking. There might be children biking to school. As a motorist, keep paying attention to the roadway and looking around you to make sure that there's, you know, that you- you're paying attention," she said.

City officials say they’re working on adding safer crosswalks through its Complete Streets program citywide.

On the other side of St. Pete High School, Fifth Avenue North is under the state’s jurisdiction. FDOT, Stacks said, upgraded the crosswalks there a couple of years ago.

"Those have a different technology because the roadway is busier. It's intended to be a more regional thoroughfare, more so than our neighborhood street of Ninth Avenue North. So, it's better for us to have something side mounted on Ninth Avenue. It's going to be a little bit more contextually appropriate, but we just need to make sure that it's highly visible and that's what those added lights will let us do," Stacks said.

St. PetersburgCrime and Public Safety