FORT MYERS, Fla. – The intersection of McGregor Boulevard and Hill Avenue and in Fort Myers is causing concern among local residents. Despite the installation of flashing pedestrian beacons several years ago, neighbors feel it is not enough to ensure safety.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Kanable crosses the busy street every night after dinner with his three-year-old son, Dylan, and 11-year-old daughter, Alana.<\/p>\n
“The sunsets are beautiful and, you know, and I get my steps, and I’m actually feeling a lot better,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, he expressed concern over drivers who fail to stop, making the crossing dangerous.<\/p>\n
“They don’t understand it, or they just don’t care,” Kanable said, as he attempted to cross on Friday morning. Several cars sped up, rather than slow down and stop.<\/p>\n
“They just drive past. It’s been to where I’ve had to step in the middle of the road to stop them because my kids were there. I’d rather me get hit by a car than my kids. You know what I’m saying?” said Kanable.<\/p>\n
The city of Fort Myers installed the flashing beacons several years ago following complaints about drivers not stopping at the crosswalk, which is required by law. Although a city spokesperson said there has been an increase in compliance, some drivers continue to ignore the signals.<\/p>\n
Kanable and other neighbors WINK spoke to off-camera are calling for more significant changes, such as more traffic stops by the Fort Myers Police Department or the installation of a stoplight.<\/p>\n
“When somebody can push the button and they just go through it, that’s not good enough. It needs a stoplight. A stoplight, like the ones on 41 one or those big intersections,” he said.<\/p>\n
When asked if there are plans to change the intersection, the city stated there are currently no plans to install a traffic signal there. The city engineer provided the following statement:<\/p>\n
Several years ago, the City made the decision to change the static Pedestrian Crossing signs (just signs, no lights) to the RRFB style (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon) as an upgrade for safety reasons. There were a number of complaints voiced that drivers were not stopping for pedestrians at the marked crosswalk as is required by state law. In order to draw attention to the pedestrians it was decided that RRFBs would be installed. There has been an increase in compliance over the static signs; unfortunately, there are still drivers that are non compliant. The City has no plans to install a traffic signal for the marked crosswalks across McGregor.<\/p>\n
While Kanable wants change, he hopes this story can help spread awareness and stop a tragedy from happening.<\/p>\n
“I’m not just doing it for my family,” said Kanable. “I’m doing it for everybody, because I don’t want you guys to have to come down here again and report a death for something that could have been easily fixed…. And at least if they [drivers] see this, they’ll gain the knowledge that, hey, you’re supposed to stop when them lights are flashing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. – The intersection of McGregor Boulevard and Hill Avenue and in Fort Myers is causing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-89808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}