APOPKA, Fla. — For the next six months, the Apopka Police Department will place additional units around Main Street and State Road 436 to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety.
Orange County is one of the top 25 worst counties for serious and fatal crashes, reports noted, and those stretches of roads were problem areas.
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The high-visibility units will educate drivers on the responsibilities around pedestrians and speak with pedestrians about crossing the road safely. Funding for the program was paid for by a grant.
“A lot of those crosswalks are not legally marked, or striped,” Emily Hanna, executive director of Bike/Walk Central Florida, said about the road. “Just an older design of that roadway, just really meant to move vehicles and not necessarily move people across it.”
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Hanna’s group has been partnering with the City of Apopka to shift the planning of the city away from being centered around cars. Earlier this month, the city approved a master plan for a network of bike paths her group designed, some of which are already under construction.
Her group will be behind a regional crackdown on unsafe driving in October when agencies from different corners of the county watch for drivers failing to stop at crosswalks.
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“We’re shifting kind of this idea that the vehicle isn’t the dominant way to move around our community, and we can do a better job of designing our communities to support all modes of transportation,” Hanna said.
While Apopka’s effort is mostly about education, officers warned tickets could be given depending on the violation.
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