ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Residents in one Orlando neighborhood came together to ask for and get improvements to make it safer to cross Bumby Avenue.<\/p>\n
When Erin Hearn\u2019s son started going to Audubon Park K-8 School in 2018, Hearn soon realized it wasn\u2019t going to be easy biking across Bumby Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that was the scary thing is like when you can tell (drivers are) so unaware of that you\u2019re actually standing outside of a car, you know, right here on the corner, waiting to cross,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Just north of Colonial Drive, heading toward Corrine Drive and Leu Gardens, the city of Orlando found 11,000 people drive on Bumby Avenue every day.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It\u2019s a) steady flow,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n
Hearn wanted to do something about it. So in 2019, she and her neighbors and friends gathered signatures and got the city to conduct a traffic study.<\/p>\n
Orlando\u2019s Safe Mobility Manager, Laura Hardwicke, said about half of drivers are going the speed limit, 30 miles per hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s those people who are going 10 miles over, 40 miles per hour on this neighborhood street, that\u2019s really the concern for the city,\u201d said Hardwicke.\u00a0\u201cIf a crash were to happen at that speed, it\u2019s incredibly dangerous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After hearing the concerns from Hearn and others, and conducting the safety study, the city finally agreed to do something, spending $347,000 to build two raised crosswalks and two speed tables to get drivers to slow down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does feel safer crossing,\u201d said Hearn. \u201cThere\u2019s more visibility for people walking and biking with the signage and the raised hump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite taking several years to get results, Hearn is glad something got done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a lot of people just think, \u2018Oh, nothing\u2019s going to happen\u2019. And a lot of times, nothing does happen. But things do happen. It just might take six or seven years to get it happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n