Several years back a group formed to address the safety and beautification of Park Street. We met with the city and county who were receptive on the ideas presented. Unfortunately, Jungle Terrace Civic Association was the one declining neighborhood association along Park Street that wasn't in favor of any crosswalks, calming or beautification. The group had to disband due to Jungle Terrace Civic Association not wanting to be involved. It was very unfortunate because now with the widening of Park Street/Starkey Road there will be heavier traffic flow.

I think it needs to be addressed again. It's residential. There have been numerous crashes on this road recently. There are a lot of young people moving to this side of town and maybe there will be a shift in the desires of the population toward pedestrian and bike friendly roads.

It should, and it would be wonderful if there was the support of all neighborhood associations in order to make it a reality.

Thank you for contacting the Transportation Deparment with your traffic safety concerns along Park Street.

The Police department periodically monitors speeds along all major roadways including Park Street on a recurring basis. Excessive speeds are an issue everywhere and they do their best to enforce the posted speed limits with the limited resources they have. Areas with a serious crash history and dangerous traffic patterns will get more of their attention than others without a history or pattern. Luckily, Park Street does not have a history of or a severe pattern of crashes.

Park Street is classified in the City's Comprehensive Plan as a Minor Arterial - County Roadway, which means it is intended to carry heavier vehicle volumes of traffic to and from Arterial Roadways (Central and Tyrone). In addition it is an Evacuation Route and a corridor frequently used by emergency service vehicles (Fire, Police, and Ambulance). Based on this classification and use it is designed much differently than a residential roadway. This is there are no medians, which would reduce its carrying capacity and level of service below acceptable limits.

Well we all would like to see our roadway corridors operate safely, they all cannot be designed to reflect unrestricted access for all roadway users. This means that pedestrians using major roadways are intended to cross at protected locations where typically traffic signals are located and motorists would expect to interact safely. The mid-block areas you have indicated for adding additional crosswalks would first of all require by standard a median, which would not only block emergency services but some driveways. Therefore we cannot consider this type of traffic control for this classification of roadway.

With that said, we are also going to be embarking on a complete streets implementation plan this summer (copy attached). There will be a well-publicized public involvement process for the plan and I hope you will be able to participate. Our plan may change existing design criteria and should bring in additional funding in the future. We already do have more funds programmed in 2017 if the budget passes ($3/4million) for complete streets and sidewalk expansion than what we have in this year’s budget. So we may be able to eventually accommodate a complete street design into this area that will meet the needs of all roadway users.

I trust this helps explain the factors that we must consider when evaluating requests for modifying a roadway design and we look forward to working with the community to develop our complete street implementation procedures in the near future.

May I suggest a cross walk here. There are too many people almost getting hit trying to cross here to access 7-11.

UPDATE: Transportation Department staff recently updated our speed studies on Park Street in response to a Neighborhood Associations' request. We determined that the 24-hour average operating speed was 48.47 MPH and therefore sent the results to the Police with another request to monitor and enforcement.

We also have been working with the Neighborhood Association and County to approve a new pedestrian crosswalk, with flashing beacons and a mountable center median at 28th Avenue N, which has sidewalks on both sides of the road leading into Walter Fuller Park and the new crosswalk recently installed on 28th Street. We are currently waiting for our contractor to schedule the roadway modification necessary to facilitate installation of the crosswalk. While we don't have his schedule yet we are assuming it will take place within a few weeks, not months.

Correction: the new crosswalk was recently installed on 80th Street / 28th Avenue N at the entrance to the park.

UPDATE: Officer Steffek from SEU has addressed the speeding on Park St the last two days and issued approximately 18 citations. The highest speed was 29 mph over.

Is this new crosswalk at Park St? Park St is dangerous. It's not safe to even walk on the sidewalk with all the accidents around the 7-11.

Re speeding cars - good news! The police are some of the worst offenders on Park St. Hopefully the PD realizes their staff speed as well.

It is a shame that Park Street doesn't get the same level of safety/beautification that 4th Street receives. That street seems to be very parallel in scope and purpose as Park Street. It's an evacuation route as well as has a fire station directly on the street. So it's safe to assume they have emergency vehicles traveling up and down on a regular basis. Additionally, they have medians which protect their crosswalks not only adding the safety feature but a sense of beauty. Park Street can not have any further traffic lights added whereby residents can cross safely. You've provided us neighborhood parks without a safe way to access them other than getting in a car and driving. There was a plan purposed several years back to add the same type of crosswalks that you find along 4th Street. It should be resurrected and readdressed. The traffic is only going to become heavier and the cars will only continue to go faster.

@Michael that sounds great. A crosswalk at 28th would be about right. Also one more near 38th at Abercrombie Park would make it safer for the neighborhoods north of 28th to connect with each other. It would be nice to be able to walk to a few local establishments without worrying about getting run down. As much as I hate crosswalks when I'm driving they are a reality that this city is going to have to face. We are the most densely packed city in the entire state. Walking is faster than driving, but certainly not safer yet. Thanks for working to make our city better!

Thank you for your past submission via SeeClickFix. The City of St Petersburg periodically reviews past reports that are made from citizens within our city limits, and in an effort to clean-up old issues that were resolved some time ago, we are marking as 'closed' those issues that were submitted in the past for which the work has been completed or the issue has otherwise been resolved.

If you think for any reason that the issue you submitted in the past might still be unresolved, please feel free to submit a new report with the SeeClickFix St. Pete website and we will make sure the issue is directed to the appropriate City department to be addressed as soon as possible.

Thank you again - Sincerely,
Mayor's Action Center