Top speed on Gainesville streets 30 mph? That's what the city commission plans

John Henderson, The Gainesville Sun
·5 min read

Speed limits on many city roads and neighborhood streets would be reduced under a proposal endorsed by the Gainesville City Commission on Thursday in response to recent pedestrian deaths.

Commissioners approved of the speed reduction plan as part of a nine-part motion to improve pedestrian and cycling safety plan called “Vision Zero” aimed at eliminating deaths on roadways.

The commission directed staff to come back with a plan for adopting a maximum speed limit of 30 miles per hour on city roads and 20 miles per hour on neighborhood streets. It would not affect roads maintained by the county, state or federal governments.

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Most city roads have speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less, but the city is also asking the county to follow its lead, and there are many county and state roads with speed limits much higher than 35 miles per hour.

“When there is a unified understanding that in the city the speed limit is 30 miles an hour, that makes a noticeable difference,” Mayor Lauren Poe said. “People aren’t thinking: ‘Am I on a 45 (miles per hour) road or a 30 (mph) road.'"

Friends of Sophia Lambert and Maggie Paxton, two UF students who died in pedestrian crashes along West University Avenue last year, show support for the families of the two women at a press conference in March 2021.
Friends of Sophia Lambert and Maggie Paxton, two UF students who died in pedestrian crashes along West University Avenue last year, show support for the families of the two women at a press conference in March 2021.

The discussion comes in the wake of another pedestrian traffic fatality on Jan. 4, when 22-year-old Sabrina Marie Obando, a recent UF graduate, was hit and killed by a pickup truck as she was walked through a crosswalk on Northwest 8th Avenue. No charges have been filed against the driver as police investigate, police spokesman Graham Glover said Thursday.

Commissioners on Thursday listened to a presentation by the city staff of the pedestrian safety projects that are planned or recently completed under its Vision Zero plans. Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic.

Through their motion, commissioners directed staff to:

  • Inform the community of the city’s intent to set the speed limit for all city roads to 30 miles per hour and neighborhood streets to 20 miles per hour, and have staff bring back a report of what roads would be affected. Accompany the change with a plan for an educational campaign and increased enforcement.

  • Ask Alachua County if they would adopt the same speed limits for county roads.

  • Bring back a safety analysis of the use of flashing yellow signals, which some commissioners say aren't working well.

  • Include safe pedestrian access as a goal in master planning for all city parks.

  • Bring all further Vision Zero recommendations to the commission for regular updates.

  • Bring back a report on resources that would be needed to speed up the safety projects in the Vision Zero plan.

  • Bring back a memo on an Attorney General’s opinion on the city’s ability to lower speeds on county-owned roads.

  • Bring back a safety analysis of limiting or eliminating the right turns on red at stop lights.

  • Bring back a safety analysis of eliminating center turn lanes.

A University of Florida police officer watches traffic pass a recently placed street warning sign that reads "Caution High Pedestrian Traffic Area Ahead," during the start of operation Gator Steps by the City of Gainesville, the Gainesville Police Department, UF and the UF Police Department off West University Ave. in Gainesville Fla., Jan. 29, 2021. The operation, which will last about 30 days to start off, involves law enforcement using aggressive tactics to catch motorists that are not yielding right of way to pedestrians. The operation is in response to the recent deaths of two University of Florida students in crashes on University Avenue near campus. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]

Malisa Mccreedy, the city’s transportation director, said that more than $3 million has been allocated in fiscal year 2022 to design and implement the Vision Zero projects. They include projects to improve pedestrian safety in the University Avenue and 13th Street corridors, and curb ramps, lane re-purposing and one-way pairs planned for Northeast and Northwest 8th Avenues.

She also said that Gainesville has had comparatively fewer pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents in recent years than many other Florida cities, with five pedestrian deaths in 2020 and five pedestrian and one bicyclist death in 2021. By comparison, Ocala had 34 pedestrian deaths this past fiscal year.

However, Commissioner Harvey Ward, who asked for the pedestrian safety discussion, said he understands those numbers are of no comfort to people who have personally been impacted by a pedestrian death or injury.

But he added that he wants the public to know that the city is taking the issue of pedestrian safety seriously. “And that we all, I think, take it very personally when someone is injured or killed on our streets," he said.

Commissioner David Arreola said as a commissioner is gut-wrenching to see pedestrian deaths increasing in the city each year.

“We have to begin to change our mentality as a society,” he said. “We have to stop putting speed and cars first. We have to start putting people and lives first.”

Christopher Furlow, president of Gainesville Citizens for Active Transportation, said there is research that shows that having a consistent speed limit for all city or county streets leads to much greater compliance with the law, “because people know that nowhere within certain boundaries are you legally allowed to drive over a certain speed.”

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said an integral part of pedestrian safety is enforcing speed limits and traffic laws.

Traffic enforcement staffing issues a problem

But the Gainesville Police Department, like others throughout the country, is short-staffed.

Lonnie Scott, acting police chief, said the department has been offering financial incentives for people to join the force, which has 31 vacancies, or about 11% to 12% of the workforce.

He said the short staffing limits special traffic enforcement activities but the police are able to take care of basic functions with the help of overtime paid through the American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The city is also working with the state Department of Transportation on evaluating a pedestrian safety redesign of University Avenue and 13th Street by the University of Florida that has been recommended by a consulting firm the city hired. It's in an area where there have been recent pedestrian fatalities.

FDOT has been coordinating with Gainesville to advance concepts outlined in the city’s planning study, said Hampton Ray, community outreach manager for FDOT in an email.

“The city of Gainesville is advancing the study from a planning level of development into a Project Development and Environmental study,” he said. “PD&E studies turn planning ideas and concepts into well-scoped projects ready for design where all costs and impacts are understood. PD&E studies are also required to be eligible for federal funding.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville plans to lower speed limits to improve pedestrian safety