The Florida Department of Transportation held a Road Safety Audit on a stretch of State Road 29 in Immokalee on Wednesday.
According to FDOT, there were 88 collisions involving cars, cyclists and pedestrians in 2018 on this stretch of highway between Lake Tafford Rd. and 9th Street.
As one of the first steps toward make this one and a half-mile stretch of road safer, FDOT invited state and local agencies, nonprofits, and the general public to participate in the safety audit, which involved many steps, walking up one side of the street and back down the other.
FDOT Government Affairs and Communications Manager Zachary Burch said two separate groups of stakeholders accompanied consultants as they evaluated the road and its paved tribuitaries to give see what's working and what's not.
"We want to make sure that we’re providing the safest environment for all road users and certainly in this community, which is probably a heavier bike-ped volume community than we have really anywhere else in the district," Burch said.
Burch said the department wanted to hear from the people who use the road every day. Collier County’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Advisory Committee member, Andrea Halman, said FDOT's decision to invite public input was appreciated.
"It's important to the residents here and sometimes we feel like no one’s listening," Halman said. "So if we’ve got FDOT coming out and taking a walk with us, it means that we are listening to each other."
FDOT consultants will compile the notes taken during the walk into a report that will be out by the end of the month.
