Mayor Scott Singer cuts the ceremonial ribbon that stretches along the crosswalk on State Road A1A at the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton. Residents of the club and other members of the Beach Condo Association thanked Singer and the city for negotiating to take over the project from the Florida Department of Transportation, allowing it to be finished a couple of years sooner. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Mary Hladky
As Boca Raton police held back traffic, an enthusiastic crowd of beachside residents spanned A1A while Mayor Scott Singer cut a ribbon to recognize the completion of a project that added crosswalks along the busy thoroughfare.
The Jan. 12 event at a crosswalk in front of the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton capped more than a year of effort by the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach and other beachside residents to improve pedestrian safety.
“The beach and BCA are so excited to have these safety precautions put in on the beach,” said BCA co-president Emily Gentile as she thanked city officials for making the improvements.
“When you ask for something, we do our best to respond,” Singer told the group.
Data gathered by the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency show that residents’ concerns about safety are justified.
During the five years ending in 2022, there were 133 crashes along the 2.5-mile stretch of State Road A1A between Palmetto Park Road and Spanish River Boulevard. They resulted in one fatality and three serious injuries. Twelve of the crashes involved bicyclists and six involved pedestrians.
Because A1A is a state road, the Florida Department of Transportation should have been the agency to take on this project. But FDOT officials told the city that if they agreed the work should be done, it would not start until 2025.
City officials and the BCA agreed that wasn’t soon enough. So the city negotiated with the state to take over the project at a cost of about $260,000.
The result is 11 new crosswalks between Highland Beach and Deerfield Beach. Pedestrians who want to cross can press a button to activate flashing lights alongside the road that alert motorists to stop.
People use the new crosswalk as they clear the road after the ceremony. A push of a button activates flashing lights (on pole at top right) that signal vehicles to stop. ‘I think it’s terrific,’ says resident Joan Epstein. ‘The cars come along so fast on A1A.’
“I think they are fabulous,” said Boca Towers resident Gilda Resnick. “It is a wonderful thing and overdue.”
“I think it’s terrific,” said Joan Epstein, a Yacht and Racquet Club resident. “The cars come along so fast on A1A.”
Immediately after the brief ceremony, it appeared that the lights, officially called rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, were working as intended. Pedestrians at several of the crosswalks activated the lights and motorists stopped to let them cross the road.
The project was completed just as pedestrian and bicyclist safety is drawing greater scrutiny in the county.
Data presented by the FDOT at the Dec. 15 Transportation Planning Agency meeting showed that bicycle and pedestrian fatalities in Palm Beach County have increased over the past five years, while those in Broward have generally decreased, with the most substantial drop occurring from 2021 to 2022.
Broward, with a population about 25% greater than Palm Beach’s, saw 64 fatalities from 2021 to 2022, while Palm Beach had 62.
The data alarmed some TPA governing board members.
“What is Broward County doing that we are not?” asked Jupiter Mayor James Kuretski. “Why are we going in the wrong direction?”
“These statistics are alarming,” said county Vice Mayor Maria Sachs, who asked for a report in six months to see what progress is being made to educate the public and improve roadway engineering.
TPA Executive Director Valerie Neilson said a report would be presented to the governing board on Feb. 16 that would provide more information on pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities and give a better sense of whether the county is making progress on reducing them.
Without more information, those speaking at the meeting could not provide solid answers on why Palm Beach County is faring poorly compared to Broward.
FDOT District 4 Director of Transportation Development Steve Braun said Broward is several years ahead in implementing safety programs.
They include Complete Streets, an approach to planning, designing and maintaining streets to reduce risks for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders, and Vision Zero, a national campaign to improve safety with the goal of eliminating all severe injuries and fatalities on the roadways.
The Boca Raton City Council unanimously approved a resolution on Oct. 25 that designates Boca as a “Vision Zero city” and directed staff to create a plan to achieve that goal.
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