FDOT Targets Zero Traffic Fatalities Through Engineering, Enforcement & Education

BY LINDSEY RANAYHOSSAINI, STAFF WRITER

According to the 2021 Florida Strategic Highway Plan, there are eight daily fatalities and 49 serious injuries on Florida’s roads. In response to these numbers, characterized by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) as unacceptable, the agency established Target Zero.

Target Zero is a statewide initiative that aims to reduce Florida’s number of roadway fatalities and injuries to zero. The initiative focuses on “connecting, interacting, and designing our transportation system to specifically relate to those (drivers) that are most involved in crashes that resulted in serious injuries and fatalities,” per FDOT’s website.

Through Target Zero, which FDOT classifies as a behavior change initiative, the agency has created a network of safety partners working toward its goals through both education and engineering solutions. Specifically, Target Zero employs the Safe System Approach (SSA), which encompasses safer roads, road users, speeds and vehicles, as well as post-crash care.

Safer Roads

Engineering solutions that encourage safe driving are a critical component of Target Zero, and at their core are the FDOT Design Manual, FDOT Engineering Manual and other data-driven guidelines. And while the goal of Target Zero is to eliminate all traffic fatalities, pedestrians and cyclists are most vulnerable to fatal events.

Billy Hattaway, P.E., RSP1, senior advisor with EnglandThims & Miller (ETM), has served in numerous roles with FDOT and the City of Orlando throughout his 48-year career in transportation safety. Hattaway, who has championed FDOT’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Focused Safety and Complete Streets Implementation Initiative, pointed to engineering design guidelines as paramount in decreasing roadway fatalities.

“There's no way you can fix the streets if you don't deal with the adjacent land use,” Hattaway said. “So, if you've got land development patterns, like you typically have in a downtown that's very walkable, then people are going to behave pretty well in terms of their driving behavior. They'll tend to operate at low speed if you have on-street parking and other things that create, basically, some kind of friction so that the driver knows it's meant to be a lowspeed environment.”

Some of these hallmark pedestrian safeguards, however, aren’t native to Sunbelt States like Florida, which rapidly grew in the post-World War II era. Areas of the country that grew predominantly through suburban sprawl weren’t built with the pedestrian safeguards of the North’s urban centers, Hattaway said. Features of urban environments that protect pedestrians and cyclists like on-street parking, sidewalks and raised crosswalks, were not prioritized in this environment.

“Virtually 90-something percent of their growth has been suburban sprawl, where all the buildings are set back from the roadways,” Hattaway said. “You know, there may or may not be sidewalks depending on the state you’re in, and it’s really just focused on moving cars, period.”

The consequences of suburban sprawl ultimately led to an environment that was, at its best, unconducive to pedestrian and cyclist safety.

Smart Growth America, an organization that aims to encourage the development of diverse housing and transportation options within existing neighborhoods, releases its annual report to encourage solutions for more inclusive roadways.

The State of Florida began actively working to change this after the release of the 2011 Dangerous by Design Report by Smart Growth America, which cited that four of the five most dangerous regions in the country for pedestrians were located in Florida. The Orlando metropolitan area was named the deadliest.

Engineering Solutions

Making roads safer for pedestrians and drivers alike starts with engineering design, employing tools such as rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RRFBs), pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs), signage, lane conversions and modern roundabouts. The best solutions are unique to each environment and depend on driver behavior data.

“It's going to be very different, depending on, again, the adjacent land development patterns, how fast people are already driving, and what kinds of volumes there are on that road,” Hattaway said.

One engineering solution that Hattaway cited as particularly effective were modern roundabouts, which have proven to significantly reduce both the number and severity of crashes. Unlike signalized intersections, drivers can proceed if there are no other vehicles at the intersection.

“I think they’re the most effective tool that we have and, to me,there's even more precedent for using them in Florida, because when you have hurricanes, or even tropical storms, your signals go out because of lack of power,” Hattaway said.

Though RRFBs and PHBs have proven effective in encouraging drivers to comply with the law, they can be a costly addition to an intersection.

Vince Dyer, program manager for Best Foot Forward for Pedestrian Safety, an organization that tracks the pedestrian yield rate at crosswalks throughout Florida, said that while data supports the efficacy of these beacons, one RRFB can cost up to $10,000. PHBs are significantly more expensive, costing as much as $50,000 in many cases.

Furthermore, many pedestrians don’t push the button to activate a beacon, nullifying the utility.

“We’re really focused on making sure that when we give recommendations, and we’re looking at those low-cost solutions, things that can go in right away that can make a difference,” Dyer said. “That way, if a beacon’s not pressed or, heaven forbid, a storm knocks it out, there’s still a fail-safe in the existing infrastructure with signage and markings.”

Flexible delineator posts near and leading up to crosswalks have proven particularly successful and can be just as effective as a beacon, Dyer said. The cost of installing these posts is about $1,000, including labor.

In Cape Canaveral, engineers completed a gateway treatment with delineator posts leading up to crosswalks, which increased the pedestrian yield rate from 48% to approximately 70%.

“That’s a similar bump that we would see with a flashing beacon,” Dyer said. “Sometimes the simplest solutions can go a long way.”

Enforcement And Education

While engineering solutions lay the foundation in preventing driver negligence, drivers also need to be knowledgeable about traffic laws, Hattaway said. Though the laws change every two years, most people don’t read the current driver’s handbook once they’ve received their learner’s permit. In the case of pedestrian safety, many Florida drivers are not aware that they’re required by law to yield to pedestrians. Hattaway mentioned that one strategy employed in the state is to have police officers in plain clothes cross intersections, presenting drivers who fail to yield with either a warning or a citation for violating the law.

Best Foot Forward utilizes a similar strategy to promote safer crosswalks for pedestrians, sending out staged pedestrians and posting signs at a safe stopping distance for drivers to yield. “They’re able to record whether drivers yield or don’t yield, and then we can track any changes from engineering, enforcement and education in the areas to see if there’s any change overall,” Dyer said. “Because we track hundreds of crosswalks, we’re also able to let our partners know what’s worked well in similar locations with similar stats.”

Recently, Best Foot Forward completed a summer back-to-school campaign, known as Operation Best Foot Forward, to encourage safety for bikers and pedestrians traveling to school. Similar to other endeavors, the campaign used plain-clothed police officers and other volunteers in crosswalks to test drivers’ knowledge of the law. With a focus on social, digital and broadcast media, the campaign invited reporters to spread the word.

“When I originally learned about the law, it was from the news,” Dyer said. “It was from seeing our organization, before I ever even worked here, that they were pulling over drivers not stopping for pedestrians. It was a real eye-opener for me because, like most drivers who get pulled over today, I figured the pedestrian had to wait for me.”

Since its beginnings in Central Florida, Best Foot Forward has expanded to six additional Florida counties – Volusia, Brevard, Polk, Flagler, Marion and Lake –with the support of FDOT.

“As part of this expansion, we are supporting their Target Zero Initiative,” Dyer said. “Volusia and Brevard were ranked in the top 12 on the list of deadliest places for pedestrians, so [FDOT] was very eager to get us into those two counties especially.”