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Monday, March 18, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Million dollar grant to promote cyclist and pedestrian safety in Gainesville

<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d6f97368-407f-1dba-a66d-cc20a279fd87"><span>As they pedaled through Boulware Springs Park in Gainesville, 70 cyclists raised money for addiction recovery on Saturday. The second annual race, hosted by Active For Recovery, benefitted Metamorphosis of Alachua County, a residential treatment center for adults with substance addiction.</span></span></p>

As they pedaled through Boulware Springs Park in Gainesville, 70 cyclists raised money for addiction recovery on Saturday. The second annual race, hosted by Active For Recovery, benefitted Metamorphosis of Alachua County, a residential treatment center for adults with substance addiction.

With only a fine, white line between Jacob Wall and a 4,000-pound car, biking through Gainesville is his worst nightmare.

The UF statistics and theatre junior said too many drivers aren’t aware of basic laws protecting people like him, who bike every day.

“There should be better paths to separate bikers from drivers who should know how to drive and don’t,” the 20-year-old said.

Seeing a need to improve safety, the Florida Department of Transportation, the city of Gainesville and UF are working together on the Bicycle-Pedestrian Safety Project with a $1 million grant, according to a Federal Highway Administration press release.

The federal transportation agency announced Sept. 7 that it awarded the department a joint state and local grant to test pedestrian and bicyclist safety alert systems, according to a city of Gainesville press release. Combined with other state funding, the total amount of the project is about $2.4 million.

The city will provide access to its traffic signals and related systems to UF, which will use the information for traffic alerts, city spokesperson Chip Skinner wrote in an email.

Real-time traffic information will be sent to people by text or in a phone app, he said. Alerts will let pedestrians and bicyclists know when signals are changing, when lanes or roads are closed or how long they have to get through a green light, which they can check while stopped at red lights, he said.

“This will help safety by alerting people when things are changing and make them more aware of their surroundings,” Skinner said.

UF is in charge of possibly creating apps and other systems for testing, Skinner said.

These same messages will also be communicated with vehicles through technology installed along specific roads like University Avenue and 13th Street, he said. The areas were chosen based on pedestrian counts and frequency of use by UF students.

The transportation department will manage the money and safety project itself, Skinner said.

A 2017 study by the department of transportation found 28 hot spots for bicycle-involved crashes in the state. Four of those locations were in Gainesville, including near the intersections of West University Avenue and Northwest 13th Street and Southwest 34th Avenue and Archer Road. Each site averaged six crashes between 2011 and 2014.

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For Wall, the alert system isn’t something he would use, although he said it could be useful for people new to Gainesville who are still learning the best bike routes.

“It’s a good idea, but I’d rather they focus on lane and road infrastructure,” Wall said. “I’d also like more safety education for drivers and bikers.”

Contact Jessica Curbelo at jcurbelo@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @jesscurbelo

As they pedaled through Boulware Springs Park in Gainesville, 70 cyclists raised money for addiction recovery on Saturday. The second annual race, hosted by Active For Recovery, benefitted Metamorphosis of Alachua County, a residential treatment center for adults with substance addiction.

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