Fletcher Avenue safety ideas explored

The speed limit on Fletcher Avenue west of the University of South Florida could be lowered under plans being considered to make the area safer.

The speed limit could drop from 45 mph to 35 mph for the stretch from about 15th to 50th streets. One section, near 42nd Street, is 35 mph and has a senior zone, an area of reduced speed limits, to accommodate John Knox Village, a retirement center.

The speed reduction is one of the ideas being developed in the Fletcher Avenue Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. The project is designed to make the heavily traveled area safer for pedestrian and motorists.

Angelo Rao of Volkert and Associates, an engineering firm contracted to produce the study, and Peter Brett, manager of Hillsborough County Traffic Services Division, outlined the project recently to the University Area Enterprise Zone Development Agency.

The study focuses on 15th to 46th streets, where 15 pedestrians were involved in accidents between Jan 1, 2006, and Dec. 28, 2008. Two were killed.

Rao said that the county also may include in the study improving the intersections of Fletcher and 50th Street, Fletcher and 56th Street and 131st Avenue and 22nd Street.

Between 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles per day travel the stretch of Fletcher in the current study area, Rao said. Pedestrians cross in "random flow," with many crossing in mid-block. They also walk in the street and push baby carriages, he said.

"We need to organize all this," he told the volunteer board that seeks to encourage redevelopment in the community. "We are focused on a shovel-to-the-ground approach."

Increasing bicycle lanes, adding small medians and installing pedestrian electronic signage also are being considered.

Brett said the idea would be for businesses to adopt the medians and keep them clean and landscape trimmed.

"If they can maintain the area, we can put it in," Brett said.

The project would cost about $2 million and the county is waiting to hear if the state will fund half of it.