{"id":39650,"date":"2023-11-30T18:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39650"},"modified":"2023-11-30T18:09:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T23:09:38","slug":"lakelands-memorial-blvd-sees-over-300-pedestrians-a-day-crosswalk-compliance-remains-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/11\/30\/lakelands-memorial-blvd-sees-over-300-pedestrians-a-day-crosswalk-compliance-remains-an-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland\u2019s Memorial Blvd sees over 300 pedestrians a day, crosswalk compliance remains an issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ronald Anderson is one of the 300 pedestrians the Florida Department of Transportation says uses Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He admits he does not always use crosswalks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cI just take my chances on trying to get across without getting hit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Thursday, there were representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies who witnessed him not use the crosswalks and talked to him about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/pulling-over-driver.webp?resize=1110%2C624&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-39651\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI just wanted to try to promote that and get you to use the equipment,\u201d said John Kubicki, an FDOT District 1 safety consultant to Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In February 2020, FDOT installed several pedestrian traffic beacons along Memorial Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The project, including road and lighting improvements, cost nearly $5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The beacons are supposed to stop traffic for pedestrians with the push of the button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA lot of times people when they [push] the button the cars keep going. Some stop, some stop before the light comes. Most of the time they stop but a lot of times they don\u2019t,\u201d said Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it comes to compliance, FDOT\u2019s biggest concerns are cars not stopping when the pedestrian light turns red and pedestrians avoiding the crosswalks altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is an area that there\u2019s some homelessness going on. To get from the north to the south of the boulevard, there\u2019s a lot of frequent crossing,\u201d said Lakeland Police Assistant Chief Hans Lehman. \u201cIt\u2019s been an ongoing problem for years that we\u2019ve tried to attack in different ways. We\u2019re hoping this might help some.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to FDOT District One\u2019s Law Enforcement Liaison, Janice Martinez, the following data was gathered at today\u2019s Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>54 citations were issued to motorists. (The citations were a combination of PHB violations as well as non-compliance of wearing seatbelts and outdated registration, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12 warnings were issued to motorists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Approximately 50 pedestrians issued educational materials.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No pedestrians were cited. &nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2-hour detail with FHP, Lakeland PD and Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, FDOT, Lakeland Police, Florida Highway Patrol and the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office jointly enforced and educated pedestrians and drivers on how to safely navigate around each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that there\u2019s been some motorists that are not paying attention. They\u2019re not stopping when they should. They\u2019re not yielding to the pedestrian. When the pedestrian\u2019s in the crosswalk and especially when the lights are activated, you need to yield to that pedestrian,\u201d said Sgt. Steve Gaskins with Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials also want pedestrians to wear bright-colored clothing at night, put lights on their bicycles and use the equipment available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cUse that crosswalk. It may be more initially convenient for you to just cross the highway right then and there. It\u2019s hard to judge vehicle speeds coming out you for people that don\u2019t know how to do that,\u201d said Sgt. Steve Gaskins with Florida Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While drivers can be cited for not yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, pedestrians can also be cited for not using crosswalks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Sgt. Gaskins, two out of three pedestrian crashes are the fault of the pedestrian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe natural assumption is vehicle hit a defenseless pedestrian, the driver\u2019s at fault. That\u2019s not always the case,\u201d said Sgt. Gaskins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ronald Anderson is one of the 300 pedestrians the Florida Department of Transportation says uses Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland everyday. He admits he does not always use crosswalks. &nbsp;\u201cI just&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[6909,6908],"class_list":["post-39650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-crosswalk-compliance-remains-an-issue","tag-lakelands-memorial-blvd-sees-over-300-pedestrians-a-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39653,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39650\/revisions\/39653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}