Gainesville receives $8M from federal government to make University Avenue more pedestrian friendly

The city of Gainesville received an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to completely redesign University Avenue amid concerns over rising pedestrian accidents on the road.

The redesign includes over 4 miles of the roadway and seeks to slow traffic, narrow lanes, add raised crosswalks and resurface and restripe the road.

Last week, Gainesville and Alachua County commissioners joined together to promote traffic safety, calling it a "traffic violence crisis" and vowing to put funding into a new public education campaign. The effort comes at a time when Gainesville has seen an uptick in vehicles hitting and killing pedestrians and bicyclists over the past year.

“It feels like we can’t wait,” City Commissioner Casey Willits said. “It’s a crisis now.”

University Avenue’s crash rate is more than triple the statewide average, according to a city press release. The road has been the site of 70 pedestrian accidents in the past five years, including seven fatalities, according to traffic data.

In 2016, a 20-year-old UF student was hit and killed near campus by a garbage truck. Tragedies struck again in 2020 and 2021 when two more UF students were killed while walking around campus by moving vehicles.

City officials soon after began to heighten its "vision zero" campaign to eliminate traffic fatalities. A major step in doing so required redesigning the roads around UF, though the city struggled to obtain funding through the Florida Department of Transportation to do more than lower speed limits and insert speed tables.

Former mayor Lauren Poe previously estimated the project to cost around $50 million.

Tuesday's funding, which comes in the form of a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant, provides a way to significantly kickstart much of that redesigning work for pedestrian safety, something that Mayor Harvey Ward vowed to taxpayers on his first day in office to make a top priority.

What's being done?:Pedestrians and bicyclists keep getting hit by cars in Gainesville

More:As UF students return, president and police work to prevent pedestrian deaths

“I’m thrilled to continue to work with the Biden administration on projects like this that will save lives and make Gainesville work better for all our neighbors,” he said.

But it's not just around campus that is proving to be dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians.

In January, a woman was arrested for a hit-and-run crash along South Main Street that left a middle-aged man dead two months earlier. So far this year, Gainesville police have at least three deaths caused by vehicles, including a 75-year-old woman who was walking her dog.

Just last week, a 13-year-old boy was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being hit while riding his bike in northwest Gainesville.

Data shows that the trend of pedestrian and bicyclist traffic deaths have only increased over the past decade. In 2013, one pedestrian was killed by a vehicle in Gainesville. By 2022, that number reached 11.

Going outside of Gainesville, data shows more fatal crashes.

More:New details emerge in hit-and-run case that resulted in the death of a bicyclist

Elected leaders said they hope that their safety campaign will highlight the dangers of the issue.

Alachua County Commission chairwoman Anna Prizzia said the public education campaign is a new approach to preventing traffic violence, and not something the county has previously considered.

“We were more focused on what we could do with our limited budgets to put in blinking lights or crosswalks or to narrow roads or to lower speed limits,” she said. “Versus thinking about also focusing on the drivers themselves and trying to educate and bring awareness to their role.”

Prizzia has been hit multiple times by cars while riding a bike in Gainesville, she said, including on University Avenue.

“I hope that folks know that we're taking this really seriously,” Prizzia said. “And that I hope that the drivers will also take the time to remember that we all have a responsibility to help keep our community safe.”

On Jan. 5, the Gainesville City Commissioners updated sidewalk lights in newly developed areas in order to comply with updated Florida Department of Transportation standards. Willits, who took office that same day, said he has also been hit by a moving vehicle while riding his bike in 2016. The car fled the scene, he said.

“We need to bring to bear all the resources we have,” he said. “We need to put the full force of both city government and county government to it.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville gets $8M federal grant to redesign streets around UF campus