New Cortez Road crosswalks are designed to make a dangerous road safer, but will they?
New crosswalks have been built at one of Manatee County’s most dangerous intersections and on Cortez Road, but nearby workers and drivers question what effect they’ll have.
The new crosswalk signals along a .724 mile stretch of Cortez Road West are designed to offer a safer experience for drivers and pedestrians alike.
But some say it could make already bad traffic worse and hamper drivers when the sun is setting behind the bright flashing lights.
The $2.8 million Florida Department of Transportation project along Cortez Road between 14th Street West and 26th Street West include median modifications, adding pedestrian crossings in the middle of blocks, resurfacing the roadway, and modifying median openings, turn lanes and driveways.
It also includes installing new signage and updating pavement markings, all in response to the busy highway’s dangerous history.
Between 2013 and 2017, FDOT data showed 571 crashes in the project area, including 25 involving bicycles and 12 involving pedestrians.
The five new pedestrian crossings are equipped with bright, flashing lights called HAWK beacons (High-Intensity Activated crossWalK).
Pedestrians would push a button to activate a flashing yellow light that turns solid yellow to alert drivers to prepare to stop. The light then turns red, requiring drivers to stop. Once traffic stops, the pedestrian would get a signal it’s safe to cross.
FDOT has plans to add the HAWK-equipped crossings on 14th Street West between Cortez Road and 63rd Avenue West. The agency has also installed similar applications on US 92 in midtown Lakeland, US 41 in Sarasota and US 17 in Arcadia.
Too many fatalities
FDOT and the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, which sets priorities for road building projects, have set a goal of eliminating traffic deaths through safer road design.
Last month, an 81-year-old pedestrian was hit and killed by a car crossing 14th Street West, near 55th Avenue West — an area where more HAWK crosswalks are planned — when he walked into the northbound lanes and entered the path of an oncoming vehicle.
A report released in 2019, said there were 194 pedestrian deaths in Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port from 2008 to 2017, making it the fourth-deadliest metro area in the United States.
The design of the new crosswalks is called a Danish Offset, and they run diagonally across the road lanes instead of straight across. That allows pedestrians to face on-coming traffic as they walk across.
The design, combined with high visibility crosswalks, advance yield markings and Yield Here to Pedestrians signs, provide an increase in safe pedestrian and driver behaviors, FDOT said.
The pedestrian beacons were put at key pedestrian and bicycle hotspots along the section of roadway where crossings were highest and were they could best be accommodated within the right of way and median openings, FDOT said.
Engineered for safety
The Cortez Road and 14th Street intersection ranks high on the list of most dangerous crossroads in Manatee County.
Mark Mollison, manager of A to Z Sales and Leasing, 825 Cortez Road W., said the road is dangerous for pedestrians, and that one of his employees was recently hit by a vehicle injured while crossing the road.
But he thinks that the traffic engineers “got a little carried away” with their plans.
“It’s quite a hazard. Stick around for 20 or 30 minutes and you will see something,” Mollison said of traffic on the road.
Don Burrow, owner of Right on Target, a business located off Cortez, predicts the new crosswalks will be a disaster, and vowed to find a new way to get to work after the signals are activated.
“It is already ridiculously congested anyway,” Burrow said. “I have seen a lot of accidents in the area because of the construction, and a lot of near-crashes.
The new improvements are designed to slow traffic at the crossings, and include narrow lanes and changes in lane alignment, FDOT said.
Kathryn Lyon, who works at a dance studio off Cortez Road said she has concerns.
“There are too many crosswalks. People will cross wherever they are standing, rather than go to a crosswalk,” she said. “I think this is horrible. It would be better to have it on a north-south street, rather than an east-west street where the sun is not so glaring.”
FDOT held a required public hearing on the project March 5, 2020, at Peace Lutheran Church, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was reaching Manatee County.
FDOT said at the time that benefits from the project include managing speeds while accommodating mid-block crossings, improving access to retail, better management of vehicle throughput, and enhanced lighting.
The posted speed limit, 45 mph, will be maintained, as will pedestrian access to bus stops and side streets.
Into the setting sun
FDOT also addressed concerns about solar glare, which can make driving difficult at certain times of the year and at certain times of the day depending upon the roadway.
Each crossing signal has three lights on each side, two red and one yellow for a total of six red lights and three yellow lights.
“Reflective backplates were also added to help mitigate ‘solar glare.’ These backplates provide a shielding silhouette around the signal to make them more visible both at night and during the blinding effects of the rising/setting sun,” FDOT said in response to a question from the Bradenton Herald.
Backplates are now standard on FDOT projects to improve intersection safety and were added not only to the HAWK beacons but also to the traffic signal faces.
“This combination and redundancy will mitigate the solar glare issue as much as possible,” FDOT said.
Treat it like a regular traffic light
Asked what else local drivers should know about the new roadway design, FDOT responded: The changes also include narrow lanes and chicanes (or deflections in the travel lane alignment) that are designed to help motorists slow their speed through this section of roadway.
Lighting of the crosswalks and of the 20th Street intersection will also promote safer conditions for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Motorists should treat the crosswalk signals like a standard traffic signal: preparing to stop on solid yellow and stopping on solid red. If motorists are unsure about how to treat the signals, informational placards are posted on the arms to remind them.
An official activation date has not been announced, but a Florida Department of Transportation spokesman said that Manatee County was scheduled to inspect the crosswalks Friday.
