Collin Zeng has stopped people from getting hit by cars before. The area of Southwest 20th Avenue near Winn-Dixie is where he warns people not to step into the road and cross.
“Ever since I moved here a year ago, it’s been an issue,” the 19-year-old UF biology sophomore said. “People were jaywalking all the time.”
Zeng was fed up with the lack of an established place to cross near the bus stop. First, he emailed the Gainesville City Commission. After a few weeks of no reply, he started a petition to the Alachua County Public Works titled “Build a crosswalk near RTS Stop 810 on SW 20th Ave.”
“I met another person who emailed the city about it, and we found out that we both got ignored,” he said.
The Change.org petition gained momentum within a few days. After the first day of being on the site, it had 50 signatures. Within the first week it had 85.
The petition was addressed to county transportation engineering manager Brian Singleton, who came up with a compromise.
“We reviewed the requests last week, and due to there not being a sidewalk on the north side of Southwest 20th Avenue, we can not put a crosswalk in,” he said. “The correct infrastructure just isn’t there.”
The List of Priority Projects approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization for the Gainesville Urbanized Area for the next five years does not mention a sidewalk project for that area, either.
“A crosswalk for that area would be really nice,” said Sean Lan, a 20-year-old UF nutrition junior. “That area is pretty congested, especially around rush hour. It takes a long time to even make a turn into The Estates.”
Southwest 20th Avenue is listed on Gainesville’s List of Priority Projects as a road operating at an unacceptable highway level of service, with a Level of Service score of F, meaning that the drive down the road is not smooth and steady.
The public works department is scheduled to place signs indicating pedestrian crossing the week of July 7 on the corner of Southwest 20th Avenue and Southwest 34th Street.
“I feel good about (the signs),” Zeng said. “Even if some people ignore it, at least one person will see it, and it will make the city safer.”
[A version of this story ran on pages 1-3 on 7/1/2014 under the headline "UF student leads pedestrian warning-sign initiative"]
