Robb Doss: Lake County, like others, turns blind eye to pedestrian safety for school children
Robb Doss
As pedestrians we’re always in one of two situations: We’re either walking on or along the road or we’re crossing the road, and we hope we can get where we’re going safely.
When it comes to determining whether either of those scenarios is safe for our children as they walk to and from school, school districts look to section 1006.23 of the Florida statutes which says that it’s not hazardous for children to walk on the road unless the traffic volume is at least 180 vehicles per hour in each direction, a total of 360 vehicles per hour. That amounts to 1 vehicle every 10 seconds. Then, the statute says that crossing a road at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or stop light isn’t hazardous for our children unless the traffic volume is at least 4,000 vehicles per hour, an average of more than 1 vehicle per second.