Yes, it's a crosswalk. But it's not just ANY crosswalk, it's a special crosswalk. You see, with a limited number of resources, the city can only put so many fancy-looking crosswalks in the city. You don't think they put them just anywhere, do you? Public health's influence can be seen on literally every street corner.
We put our sticker on this crosswalk to illustrate that public health is concerned with the health of the entire community; we wanted to highlight the fact that the overall health of a community is affected by numerous factors, even factors that have nothing to do with diseases, like dangerous streets. In fact, the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area continuously tops the nation in pedestrian deaths. Traffic engineers, working in conjunction with statistics and data collected by public health officials, will choose the best locations to place automated crosswalks. This way, pedestrians can benefit by having a safe place to cross the busy streets.
We chose this location because Fletcher Avenue and Bruce B. Downs/ 30th St. is a very dangerous intersection, with two high-volume (and high-fatality) roads. Your typical commute may not be so blatantly dangerous, but that's because the public health measures regarding traffic safety have, for the most part, been very successful. Many of the things we take for granted as commuters on the road were the result of years of data collection and research by public health officials. Public health officials will collect statistics and figure out where accidents frequently occur, and use that data to advise legislators and city planners where to lower speed limits or place speed bumps. These are all different aspects of public health's mission to ensure the well-being of the public at large.
We put our sticker on this crosswalk to illustrate that public health is concerned with the health of the entire community; we wanted to highlight the fact that the overall health of a community is affected by numerous factors, even factors that have nothing to do with diseases, like dangerous streets. In fact, the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area continuously tops the nation in pedestrian deaths. Traffic engineers, working in conjunction with statistics and data collected by public health officials, will choose the best locations to place automated crosswalks. This way, pedestrians can benefit by having a safe place to cross the busy streets.
We chose this location because Fletcher Avenue and Bruce B. Downs/ 30th St. is a very dangerous intersection, with two high-volume (and high-fatality) roads. Your typical commute may not be so blatantly dangerous, but that's because the public health measures regarding traffic safety have, for the most part, been very successful. Many of the things we take for granted as commuters on the road were the result of years of data collection and research by public health officials. Public health officials will collect statistics and figure out where accidents frequently occur, and use that data to advise legislators and city planners where to lower speed limits or place speed bumps. These are all different aspects of public health's mission to ensure the well-being of the public at large.
- N. Alvarado-Monsanto
- K. Mayorga
- M. Maturo
Wow, I did not realize how high the traffic fatalities in this area were. It's good to know that public health helps plan out which areas to place the cross walks to protect the most people. I live on campus and still find myself dodging cars while crossing the street at non automated walks. The auto-crosswalks seem easily forgettable until you have to cross Bruce B. Downs during rush hour.
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