OPD awarded grant to enforce ped/bike safety laws

Thought the Orlando Police Department (OPD) only tickets drivers who don’t yield to pedestrians during Operation Best Foot Forward? Not so much.

Since 2012, OPD has partnered with Best Foot Forward (BFF) and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) several times a year to conduct “crosswalk crackdowns” on drivers.  Now a $40,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will fund additional OPD on-street education and enforcement details.

OPD plans to use the grant money to focus not only on drivers but also people walking and riding bikes who don’t obey traffic laws as well.  The grant is funded by the FDOT Safety Office’s Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety initiative – part of the Florida’s 2012 Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Much like Bike/Walk Central Florida (BWCF) and BFF, the FDOT grant’s goal is to reduce bicyclist and pedestrian-related accidents by targeting unsafe behaviors from all road users.

We already know enforcement works. It contributes to increased driver yield rates.   We’ve seen this through Operation BFF.  Since 2012, OPD and OCSO – through Operation BFF – have issued over 6,000 warnings and tickets to drivers not yielding to people walking in marked crosswalks.

During that same time, driver yield rates have increased.

Driver yield rates averaged 12 percent on roads with posted speeds of 35 mph and lower when we first started in 2012.  That number is now 45 percent.  On roads with posted speeds of 40mph and higher, the driver yield rate has jumped from 1.2 percent to 25 percent!

Of course, enforcement is not the only solution for making our streets safer for people who bike and walk.   BFF’s “Triple E” action plan advocates for enforcement combined with education and engineering improvements in order to move the needle in the right direction.

Read the full announcement from the City of Orlando below including the list of corridors that will see increased enforcement.

OPD Awarded Grant to Keep Pedestrians and Bicyclists Safe

Published November 24, 2015 

The Orlando Police Department has received a High Visibility Enforcement grant for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety from the Florida Department of Transportation.The goal is to cut down the number of accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists. The $40,000 grant will be used toward on-street education and enforcement operations designed to target unsafe behaviors of all road users, including motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

OPD has identified nine locations throughout the City of Orlando for targeted education and enforcement:

1. SR 50 from Interstate 4 to Bennett Road
2. Central Boulevard from Garland Avenue to Summerlin Avenue
3. Downtown Core: Central/Rosalind/Orange/Robinson
4. SR 436 from SR 408 to Pershing Avenue
5. Michigan Street/ Orange Avenue
6. Orange Blossom Trail from SR 50 to Gore Street
7. Kirkman Road from Conroy Road to Raleigh Street
8. Conway Road from SR 408 to Michigan Street
9. International Drive from Oakridge Road to Carrier Drive