Crosswalk warning beacons shouldn’t die in Legislature

The state Legislature may soon curtail the most recent innovation saving lives on Florida’s roads. Rapidly flashing yellow LED beacons warn approaching motorists of people in crosswalks. People walking and riding bicycles, including children, activate the warning beacons and, before crossing, wait for motorists to stop.

A study of 18 crosswalks on multilane roads in Saint Petersburg found that the warning beacons dramatically increased the percentage of motorists stopping for people in crosswalks, from 18% before installation, to “mostly in the high 80s to close to 100 percent” afterwards. A Texas Transportation Institute study found yielding rates as high as 98%. A study of two locations in Miami-Dade County “found that evasive conflicts between drivers and pedestrians” were “reduced to negligible levels.”

The Florida House of Representatives ignored these and numerous other studies. On Monday, it approved a bill by Rep. Randy Fine that would force the removal of all warning beacons installed throughout Florida on four-lane roads, wasting tens of millions in pedestrian safety investments.

Ostensibly, the beacons could remain if converted from flashing yellow to flashing red, but that would require a change in federal policy. With no peer reviewed transportation study supporting such conversions, change is unlikely. The bill’s real, draconian effect will force the warning beacons’ removal without considering their efficacy at any given location.

Moreover, changing the beacons to red would not guarantee crossing safety. Given the human capacity to err, no traffic control device is foolproof. In 2017 alone, motorists driving through red lights killed 939 people on U.S. roads, according to AAA.

Rep. Fine’s bill sprang from the emotional aftermath of an elderly motorist fatally striking Sophia Nelson, 12, in a crosswalk on A1A in Satellite Beach. According to Fine, the warning beacons “confused” the motorist because they were yellow and a vehicle that had stopped for Sophia in the curb lane obscured her. The law, however, is clear. In Florida and 49 other states, a motorist must stop for people in crosswalks. The warning beacons augmented notice already given by the painted crosswalk, the yellow pedestrian warning signs, and the stopped vehicle at the crosswalk.

Regardless, the St. Petersburg study found that, because the warning beacons are visible from a half-mile away, motorists “exhibit yielding behavior much further in advance of the crosswalk,” reducing misjudgments. Before the warning beacons’ installation on several four-lane roads, 48 motorists passed or attempted to pass vehicles stopped for pedestrians. After the warning beacons’ installation, the number dropped to five.

Rep. Fine’s bill needs the precision of a chisel, not a sledgehammer. It should allow warning beacons on four-lane roads with speeds of 35 mph or less. Warning beacons are appropriate in a downtown or urban area with four lanes, where raised crosswalks, narrower lanes, and the visual friction created by street trees and buildings close to the street can slow motorists to 20 mph. Yet the House bill would disallow the warning beacons even in these circumstances.

Bike/Walk Central Florida’s Best Foot Forward initiative demonstrates a real need for warning beacons. Law enforcement officers walk across uncontrolled crosswalks and routinely express astonishment at the number of motorists who fail to yield, some of whom swerve around the officers to avoid striking them. The officers warn or ticket lawbreakers, but enforcement cannot occur everywhere and, by itself, cannot change motorist misbehavior.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers, the National Association of City Transportation Officials, the Pinellas County metropolitan planning organization, and the cities of St. Petersburg and Orlando all oppose the beacons’ removal.

In an age when too many motorists text and talk on cellphones while driving, we need the warning beacons more than ever — in appropriate locations — to jolt the inattentive motorist. The Florida Senate should fix Rep. Fine’s bill.