If you walk or ride a bicycle, you have a better chance of being killed in or along the street in Jacksonville than in any major city in the U.S.
That’s particularly true if you walk or ride often, as in the case of people who travel to and from work on foot or on two wheels.
According to the Alliance for Biking & Walking 2016 Benchmarks Report, even though only 0.5 percent of local commuters walk to work, putting the city 48th among 50 cities studied, Jacksonville’s 45 pedestrian fatalities per 10,000 walking commuters led the nation.
A similar percentage of commuters ride a bike to work — which puts Jacksonville at 34th on that list — but again, the city leads the nation in bicyclist commuter fatalities per 10,000 with 40.
Even if you don’t ride or walk to work every day, you are still at great risk.
“Dangerous by Design,” a study conducted in 2014 by the National Complete Streets Coalition, ranked Jacksonville, with 2.48 pedestrian deaths per 100,000 population from 2008-12, the third-most dangerous city in the country when it comes to walking, behind only Orlando and Tampa-St. Petersburg.
In an effort to make Jacksonville less noteworthy in terms of cyclist and pedestrian mortality, the city contracted Toole Design Group of Silver Spring, Md., to analyze the area inside the Interstate 295 beltway and then develop a pedestrian and bicycle master plan.
The study’s budget is more than $300,000 from special revenue funds and a Public Works road capital project account.
The project’s steering committee held its final meeting Tuesday, with Andy Clarke, director of strategy at Toole, presenting preliminary findings.
He said after driving and cycling around Duval County and talking to cycling advocacy groups, city and state transportation officials and members of the public, he’s determined Jacksonville has “tremendous opportunities for walking and biking.” But the city’s transportation infrastructure was designed solely for cars.
There are safety issues when it comes to street design throughout the area.
“There’s nowhere to ride a bike without being extremely foolhardy,” Clarke said.
There are “ridiculous gaps in the system” when it comes to connectivity and “this is the worst place I’ve been when it comes to compliance with the regulations about pedestrians and crosswalks,” he said.
Clark said there are myriad examples of four- and six-lane roadways lined with stores and bus stops that have no traffic signals at intersections and lack mid-block crosswalks.
That leads to conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles.
“The fault is not people’s behavior. They’re just getting across the street the way they think is best,” he said.
As a first step, the city has installed “Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons” at 10 crosswalks between signalized intersections.
Pedestrians push a button to activate a bright strobing beacon before they cross the street, which alerts motorists to use caution when approaching the crosswalk.
A test conducted in 2009 by the Federal Highway Administration determined that, on average, motorists yielded to pedestrians in mid-block crosswalks only about 18 percent of the time when no beacon was available and about 88 percent of the time when a flashing beacon was in place.
The city plans to install more of the devices when funding is available. According to the federal report, the cost for installation is $10,000 to $15,000 per crosswalk.
Clarke said the city should increase the number of crosswalks that are identified by lines painted on the roadway and when roads are improved, the latest practices for designing them to be safe for cyclists and pedestrians should be used.
He said the movement began nationally about four years ago, but Jacksonville’s road designers haven’t kept up with trends.
“Your Public Works and Planning departments need to get some training,” he said.
According to feedback from the cycling and walking communities, Clarke said the stretch of roadway that needs the most improvement is Laura Street Downtown, between the Jacksonville Landing and First Street in Springfield.
Other priority areas for pedestrian safety improvement are Soutel Drive, Pearl Street and West Eighth Street.
Clarke estimated the cost for improvements at $80,000 to $250,000 per mile, based on his experience with similar projects in other cities.
He also said Jacksonville has an advantage when it comes to funding improvements because developers pay an impact fee — the “mobility fee” — that is earmarked exclusively for transportation infrastructure improvements.
City Planning Department Director Bill Killingsworth said each of the city’s 10 mobility fee zones designate percentages for the use of the fees collected.
Some require that as much as 45 percent of the fees be used for improvements for cyclists and pedestrians, while in other zones, up to 80 percent of the fees are designated for roadway construction and improvement.
He said each zone collects a different amount of mobility fees. Areas with substantial new development collect more fees than areas with little or no new development.
City Council President Lori Boyer said mobility fees aren’t the only source for funding the improvements that will be recommended when the final results of the study are presented in March.
She advised the committee that capital improvement funds also could be used, but that will require some planning and lobbying on the part of safety advocates.
“You have to communicate to the administration in January to May” to get specific projects included in the next year’s Capital Improvement Plan, “and then from May to September, advocate to City Council,” to ensure the projects are included in the budget, she said.
“You will need multiple buckets of funding,” said Killingsworth.
Former council member and avid cyclist Don Redman has been participating in the steering committee process.
The subject of bicycle and pedestrian safety first came up in February 2009 when he and cycling groups were planning that year’s “Bike to Work Day.”
The discussion revolved around making cyclists and motorists more aware of traffic regulations such as right-of-way issues at intersections and crosswalks.
“I’m not giving up. I’ll ride this thing all the way through,” Redman said Tuesday.
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