A bill that aimed to create safer walking conditions for students on their way to school in Escambia County and across the state is likely dead this legislative session.
House Bill 229 which was sponsored by state Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Pensacola, and pushed by local advocate Rob Doss seemed to have a promising future earlier this week after being passed unanimously by the Florida House Education and Employment Committee, which would have sent the bill to be heard by the full House.
However, a sister bill on the Senate side hasn t made any progress, and time likely will run out this session, which ends April 30, before any action is taken.
Local advocates hope scrapping much of their proposed Safe Walkways to School Act for a much shorter bill will help improve walking conditions for schoolchildren in the future.
Rep. Michelle Salzman amended her bill to call for the Department of Transportation to study what constitutes a safe and suitable walkway for children from kindergarten through 12th grade, and ultimately recommend criteria for what would be considered hazardous. The amended bill, HB 229, passed the Florida House s Early Learning and Elementary Education Subcommittee on Thursday. It s a huge win for Florida. It s a long, long, long run but it s still a huge win. It s a step moving forward and we ve never made it this far ever, Salzman said.
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.