Best Foot Forward said if this is going to be adopted in Duval County, the goal is to have it funded through the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A pedestrian safety program recognized in St. Johns County could expand to Duval County to help elevate safety standards.
The program is already seeing results in St. Johns County. There were eight crashes involving a pedestrian in January alone, but this summer there have been zero on local roads, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
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Members of Best Foot Forward (BFF) attended the St. Johns County Commission meeting Tuesday to be recognized for their effort in increasing pedestrian safety.
BFF uses a method to calculate data, by putting a marker out at a safe stopping distance based on the speed limit. As the car approaches the marker, their data collectors are trained to step into the crosswalk, making eye contact with the driver, and if the driver stops, they mark it as “yielding.” If the driver does not stop, it is marked as not yielding.
The coalition then takes a sample of data to get a sense of which crosswalks are safe and less safe.
BFF Program Director Vince Dyer discussed the potential plan to bring this initiative to Jacksonville.
“We’re working with FDOT to expand into Jacksonville,” Dyer said. “Just like with St. Johns County, we’ve already identified crosswalks and we started to take some initial data. We’re looking to continue to build those connections and hopefully we can get a proclamation of support from their commissioners.”
Dyer added that if this is going to be adopted in Duval County in the future, the goal is to have it funded through the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization.