Parents at Tampa's Robles Elementary School have long expressed concerns about drivers speeding near the school and endangering their kids.
Now, Hillsborough County is doing something about it.
Abigail Flores, who manages Hillsborough school transportation projects, talked outside the Sligh Avenue school to explain some of the changes that have taken place there, and the steps being taken countywide to make school zones safer for children.
“What we did was some speed management treatments, which are to put delineators on the white lines at the edge of the road, and that gives the drivers the feeling of being constrained," Flores said. "It's called visual friction. So we were putting those in. We've also created a pedestrian refuge with delineators. So the approach of Hillsborough County, after we study these schools, we want to get something in the ground right away to start improving student safety walking and biking to school.”
So would you say that some of the issues and concerns here have been remedied?
So some of the issues at Robles Elementary was the parents. Because of the car-centric development of this school, there are a lot of parents dropping off their students. And so they park on the shoulder adjacent to the school to have their student come to the car, which is not good, because students then are walking between parked vehicles. A lot of times they're not able to be seen by drivers who are driving by on the road. So we wanted to eliminate that conflict. We put object markers here, poles on the shoulder, to prevent parents from driving there.
Is there a specific cost for some of these projects? How expensive can this stuff be?
So for a quick implementable project, they can be $100,000 or more, and for the more robust projects that come after, they could be $2 million or more.
How would you describe the current transportation infrastructure around schools in Hillsborough County?
The infrastructure around schools is geared towards drivers dropping their students off. So we see that even the way the school is placed on the campus, where there's driveways, but there's no pedestrian access a lot of times to schools, and so that can be problematic when we're trying to encourage walking and biking to school safely, because it's prioritized for cars. The other thing of infrastructure around schools is there's sidewalk gaps, because a lot of times the sidewalks don't go in with the new land development or even with a new school. Sometimes sidewalks don't go in in front of the school itself.
How did some of these issues come to be? Was it just based off of construction back in the day not considering certain things? How did it get to be this way?
The infrastructure we've seen around schools, I think, are patterns of development. So a development went in and the sidewalks didn't go in. A development went in, and there was only one access in and out of that development, which meant that students had to walk a long way to get to school. And there's also this prioritization of vehicles, where there's a small sidewalk and three travel lanes, so there's this prioritization of drivers over pedestrian infrastructure.
How are these things studied?
We study where the students are walking. So there's technical experts that do a walk audit. We walk in the same paths as the students, and we say, what does it feel like to walk to school as a student? What do I need for safety and comfort so that I can get safely to school?
When you're talking about actually walking these paths as if you're a student, how is that for you doing some of these walk-throughs? Do you wear a backpack? How do you get in the zone as a student?
Well, sometimes I bring my bicycle. So I ride bikes, and I scooter, and I walk, and I say, 'what would I need as a human being walking on this road?' I would need lighting. I would need for my friends to be able to walk next to me, for bikes that are coming in the opposite direction. How do I get out of the way? Are these tree canopies blocking my view and hitting me as I'm walking underneath? Is there enough shade? Where can I cross? Where I feel safe?
How quickly can some of these projects change the safety landscape outside schools?
The approach of Hillsborough County is after we study the school for safety, we want to get a project in the ground as soon as possible. And that's where we come with the low-cost, quick-implementable improvements, like the paint and the sign and the markers to prevent parents from parking at locations that would make it hard to see students. So we put that in right away. Then the following year, we go and we design for more robust improvements, like the beacons that I mentioned at student crossings, like raised crosswalks, chicanes and even separated bike lanes.
What would you say to drivers or parents that are trying to just drive their kids to school, but may also kind of bend the rules so that they could get their kid there efficiently, or pick their kid up the most efficiently?
A parent may be able to drop off their student one year, but circumstances change, and that might be your kid on the road the next time. And how would you want drivers to treat your child who's walking or biking or crossing, and that's what we want to put forth.
