County officials say turning the road into even more of an expressway may be the answer to making things safer.
By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published November 30, 2005
[Times photos: Douglas R. Clifford]
Tavaron Ashley of Clearwater crosses the northbound lanes of U.S. 19 Tuesday, 2 miles south of the intersection where 16-year-old Stephanie Knight was struck and killed while crossing the highway. Some say a pedestrian bridge would make the road safer, but a county planner says such bridges are costly and underutilized.
A memorial sits to the east of U.S. 19 to honor Stephanie M. Knight of Palm Harbor who was struck while crossing the highway with two friends to get to a bus stop about a half-mile north of Curlew Road.
Even after an unprecedented investment to make U.S. 19 safer in Pinellas County, the death of a 16-year-old Friday is a tragic reminder that the road is among the nation's most deadly for pedestrians.
Stephanie M. Knight of Palm Harbor was struck while crossing U.S. 19 with two friends to get to a bus stop about a half-mile north of Curlew Road.
The nearest crosswalks, at Curlew and Tampa roads, were each about a half-mile away from the bus stop.
So instead of walking to cross at those major intersections, the three girls tried to cross about midway in between. Stephanie, a Tarpon Springs High School junior, didn't make it.
"It was horrible," said Billy Sepulveda, who was driving behind the pickup truck that hit Stephanie. "But what got me really mad is that those accidents could be prevented. They could just (put) an overpass over U.S. 19 and save a lot of people."
Maybe not, say county officials.
Pinellas County has at least five pedestrian bridges over major roads. But the county is not likely to build more partly because of cost - about $3-million each - and because the existing ones often go underutilized, said county planning director Brian Smith.
"We've built them, but the ones that are used are really the ones on the (Pinellas) Trail," Smith said. "A lot of people don't want to go out of their way to use them, so what you find is when people have to go a half a mile they don't use it."
And making another change - moving the bus stop that Stephanie and her friends were heading to - might not make the road safer, either.
The bus stop at County Road 95 may be half a mile from the nearest intersection, but it's where it should be to meet the public's needs, said Bob Lasher, community relations manger for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority.
Putting bus stops closer to major intersections creates a different set of hazards, especially in the northern portion of the county, Lasher said.
"Those intersections have the designated turn lanes," he said. "That's where it's dangerous for the buses, because we're either in a turn lane or trying to turn onto the main road."
So despite the inherent danger of crossing U.S. 19 illegally, people still try. It's a matter of simply wanting to get to their destination as quickly as possible, Smith said.
Many underestimate how quickly cars are driving and make a run for it.
"We're dealing with the same thought process as behind the wheel of a car, people want to get to where they're going as fast as possible." Smith said. "So we need to make it easier for people to walk around, and people are going to have to accept the fact that it will take longer to get places when you're walking."
Officials say turning U.S. 19 into even more of an expressway may make things safer for motorists as well as pedestrians.
Over the next decade, more than half a dozen flyovers - overpasses that carry traffic over major cross streets, like Ulmerton Road and Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard - are planned for some of the road's busiest intersections.
The changes are expected to discourage more pedestrians from even trying to cross the highway on foot.
"My continued advice to anyone using U.S. 19 is to always keep an eye on safety," said Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel. "We want people to recognize that it is not a safe road."
In 2000, Seel made bettering the road her top priority. As chairwoman of the U.S. 19 Task Force, she surprised doubters by coming up with feasible short- and long-term fixes.
The county and state constructed 34 miles of sidewalks, median modifications and synchronized traffic lights.
With the help of U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young and U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, more than $100-million in federal money was secured to expedite the design of the overpasses.
Next year, the Drew Street overpass will be finished.
Between 2007 and 2010, more overpasses will be built at Coachman Road, Sunset Point Road, 118th Avenue and 110th Avenue. Overpasses at Enterprise Road, Seville Drive and Belleair Road will begin in 2009.
As funding becomes available the overpasses will extend to the Pasco County line, Seel said.
"There will be better pedestrian crossings under those overpasses," Seel said. "There will be islands as you go under the overpass and you'll have a place to stop if you need too."
But Seels adds, "It will still be a highway."
Hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks use the Pinellas portion of U.S. 19 every day. So do an undetermined number of pedestrians. Add a multitude of commercial and residential developments along the highway and various speed limits, it's a recipe for disaster, said Kevin McCarty, policy director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington.
"There's a reason we don't have gas stations right on the interstate," said McCarty, whose group completed the Mean Streets 2004 study and found Tampa Bay among the nation's most dangerous areas for pedestrians.
U.S. 19, he said, is "an extreme example" of a road that is used for too many things.
Last year, six pedestrians were killed on the Pinellas portion of U.S. 19, according to the National Highway Safety Administration. The same number died in 2003.
Meanwhile, pedestrian deaths have risen in neighboring Pasco County.
In 2004, 15 pedestrians were killed on U.S. 19 in Pasco County, up from nine the previous year.
"There isn't an easy answer to this," Smith said. "But, yes, I do definitely think things have gotten better."
Times staff writers Matthew Waite and Robin Stein contributed to this report. Nicole Johnson can be reached at njohnson@sptimes.com and 727 445-4162.
