USF partners with city of St. Petersburg to improve street safety

By Matthew Cimitile, University Communications and Marketing

The University of South Florida is working with the city of St. Petersburg on a multi-million-dollar project to reduce crashes and improve safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

The city recently received a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its Showcasing Applications to Facilitate Empirical Safety (SAFEs) project. As part of the project, the city is installing and testing infrastructure such as solar-powered lights to enhance visibility and raised crosswalks to help reduce vehicle speeds, particularly at intersections where crashes are more frequent.

"This grant will allow us to put in temporary transportation infrastructure and demonstrate how well it does in reducing crashes and crash severity, with the goal of improving road safety for all in the city," said Cheryl Stacks, transportation manager with the city of St. Petersburg.

Researchers with USF's Center for Urban Transportation Research will analyze data before and after demonstration projects are installed to gauge effectiveness. They will do so through field observations, traffic cameras, crash reports, GIS tools and community engagement. CUTR will then provide the city with recommendations on the most effective safety demonstration projects and where to invest and replicate such infrastructure elsewhere in St. Petersburg.

"Our role is to determine how well various safety infrastructure and strategies performed. Then coupling that with community feedback, advise the city on how to expand and where to expand those strategies," said Hao Zhou, assistant professor in USF's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

In addition to the federal grant, the city of St. Petersburg and USF are providing matching funds, bringing the total to $4.5 million to make streets safer.

During the next two-to-three years, several safety applications will be deployed at 18 key locations and along three corridors. These include:

• Solar-powered street lighting to improve visibility, especially in areas where curb location may change
• Raised crosswalks that act as speed bumps and slow down vehicles near schools, recreation centers and parks
• Pedestrian crosswalks with flashing beacons
• Curb extensions with protected intersections and bike boxes to create greater separation between cars and cyclists and enhance visibility via green colored pavement
• Reduced speed limit signs for local streets within a neighborhood.

"These demonstration projects are about enhancing visibility, slowing speeds and creating dedicated spaces for each transportation use that will hopefully avoid incidents," Zhou said.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area was ranked the 8th most dangerous area for bicyclists and pedestrians, according to Smart Growth America's 2024 Dangerous by Design report. City officials say the demonstration projects are not only expected to improve public safety, but also educate the public on new safety infrastructure they may be less familiar with before it's permanently installed.

The city expects to complete the safety demonstration projects and evaluate their effectiveness in the next four years.

"These demonstration projects aren't just about public safety, but also take into account transportation and overall quality of life," Stacks said. "We are grateful to have the partnership with USF and the expertise of CUTR in evaluating these demonstration projects and helping us make data-informed decisions, so when we expand the program or move infrastructure elsewhere, it is informed and backed by solid research."

The SAFEs project is part of the city's Complete Streets Initiative, a comprehensive vision to create streets that are safe and convenient for all users of the roadway.