USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 19, No. 16
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
April 17, 2019
1 Section, 8 Pages
In-Complete Streets The local push for safer roadways By will isern
For a city with miles of beautiful waterfront, dozens of public parks, clusters of eclectic shops and restaurants and a wealth of historic sites, Pensacola is difficult to get around. That is, unless you’re in a car. Like cities everywhere, Pensacola (at least its modern incarnation) was designed for the automobile. Our streets are wide and fast. The places we want to visit are isolated, if not by distance then by a patchy and disjointed network of sidewalks, crosswalks and the rare bike lane. In a car, these limitations are hardly noticed. Getting around is as simple as zipping from one parking lot to the next. M a neuvering around the city by any other means, however, can be a daunting and outright dangerous endeavor. With more than 250 miles of road, Pensacola has less than five miles of bike lanes. Crosswalks across major roadways are few and far between. Sidewalks run out mid-block. The result is a system that
discourages alternative forms of transportation and disproportionately endangers the poor. Florida is the worst state in the U.S. for cyclist and pedestrian safety, and Pensacola is among the worst cities in the state. The city has more pedestrian and bicyclist injuries, per capita, than New York City and Chicago combined. Pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in Pensacola are the highest they’ve been in 30 years. In 2018, 10 pedestrians were struck and killed by automobiles in Escambia County. The deaths of Nephateria Williams and her 8-month-old daughter Neariaah at the border of the city limits on Cervantes Street in June 2018 sparked a renewed push for safer streets. It is for all these reasons
that Mayor Grover Robinson, as one of his first major policy directives, announced in February that the city would commit to implementing a “Complete Streets” program and hire a position at City Hall responsible for improving street safety and walkability. Robinson also made traffic and walkability one of the 11 pillars of his mayoral transition report. Complete Streets are streets that are designed to be safe and effective for all users, be they pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, public transportation riders or disabled. Complete Streets often feature wide sidewalks, bike lanes, skinnier roadways and medians. A local example can be seen on West Main Street between Spring and A Streets. The road features bike lanes, a median and narrows to one lane in front of Maritime Park. The goal of Complete Streets is to reach Vision Zero, or zero traffic-related injuries and fatalities. The Florida Department of Transportation adopted Complete Streets in 2015. The plan requires state projects to ensure walkability by including sidewalks and
crosswalks incorporate traffic calming features like medians. The new Pensacola Bay Bridge, for example is being built with a bicycle and pedestrian path separated from the roadway. Robinson has committed the city to following the same standards going forward, but virtually all of our current infrastructure is lacking. “The real complete street is not just built for cars, it’s built for every other use we do there,” Robinson said. “We want to encourage a lot more walking and biking. If we encourage more mass transit, walking or biking, we put fewer cars on the road.” Getting to Vision Zero will require coordination between the city, county, state and local organizations. Several initiatives are currently underway. Robinson has hired city planners and architects from New York City to devise a walkability plan for the city’s waterfront. The state has devised traffic calming plans for both the east and western portions of Cervantes Street. The city council is in the process of revamping its Bicycle Advisory Committee into a Com-
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plete Streets committee with the goal of codifying language that will commit the city to the Complete Streets. As part of Robinson’s Mayoral Transition Report, former mayoral candidate and walkability advocate Drew Buchanan probed the current state of the city’s walkability infrastructure and made suggestions for improvement. Buchanan found that the city lacks consistent policy and baseline metrics for measuring success. His suggestions, which Robinson has committed to implementing, include adopting Complete Streets, creating a connected network of bikeways, making walkability a regional effort among public and private stakeholders, simplifying downtown parking, improving lighting and more. “My recommendations are a little bit more than that, they’re almost demands,” Buchanan said. “The citizens of Pensacola demand these recommendations.” The work of actually implementing Complete Streets will fall to the city’s new Transportation Planner and the City Council. The council is already proposing an estimated $6 million project to rebuild sidewalks and streetscapes along DeVilliers, Reus and A Streets between Main Street and Cervantes. They’re scheduled to host a Complete Streets workshop in the coming weeks.
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