City and county commissions declare a “traffic violence crisis”

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s Joint Meeting between the Alachua County Commission and Gainesville City Commission, the commissioners declared a “traffic violence crisis” after Mayor Harvey Ward brought up the topic during commission comment. 

Ward said that during the 19 days he’s been mayor, two cyclists and one pedestrian in the city limits have been killed in car crashes: “This is a crisis; this is an emergency.” He said the problem is increasing everywhere, but there have been five pedestrian or cyclist deaths since the beginning of the year and three in the past 19 days. 

Ward said, “That’s unacceptable. We also have other things going on. We have gun violence that must be addressed. We have homelessness that must be addressed. Lots of things going on, but we have reached a point of emergency on our roadways.

“I am ready for us to take some action. We have focused almost exclusively on engineering over the past few years… We need to find out what we can do differently and better, both at GPD and at UPD and at ASO to improve enforcement. But a piece we have done almost nothing about in the last several years is education… It’s only a matter of a brief break in your attentionality and your focus as a driver… and somebody dies.”

Ward said he would like to see some education and a targeted campaign on the idea that this isn’t somebody else’s problem: “It’s your problem if you cause an accident as a driver.” He said he would have asked for the topic to be on the agenda, but “over the weekend it reached a breaking point with me, personally.” He said he would like to see some “intentional action today to perhaps declare a–I saw a phrase for the first time earlier today–a traffic violence crisis in our community.”

County Commissioner Mary Alford agreed, “I also called this out as a crisis on Facebook, and it hit a nerve with the community… I was going to say something similar about education. I’d also like to see that linked to a no-tolerance policy on the part of both our police departments and Sheriff’s departments if we could get that cooperation.” She said she was going to suggest some sort of joint task force to deal with the issue.

City Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he “love[d] the idea of us claiming a traffic violence crisis.” He also liked the idea of a joint task force. Eastman said education often doesn’t make a difference in changing people’s behavior, and he thought engineering was more important, “that our roads are designed to keep people focused… and designed for safety.”

Eastman made a motion that they “claim a traffic violence crisis where we will be stepping up enforcement and education and engineering to make sure nobody is killed on our streets by cars.”

Ward asked Eastman if he would add direction to the City communication department to coordinate with the County and the university, and Eastman agreed. 

County Commission Chair Anna Prizzia said, “I’m happy that we’re addressing it… As we go forward with this, I hope we’ll actually take the time… to do the homework about people’s behaviors, why they are doing what they are doing, and how to influence that behavior and to target our marketing and communications… on that behavior change piece… I would hope we would incorporate that research piece.”

The city commission passed their motion unanimously.

The county commission’s motion mirrored the city commission’s motion except that they voted to send a Chair letter to the Sheriff, asking him to participate in the dialogue with GPD around speeds and traffic violations. That motion also passed unanimously.

In closing the meeting, Prizzia said, “We have a lot of wicked issues, the traffic issue, but we have deaths every day due to gun violence, as well. And we have people who aren’t able to take care of their own families and can’t find jobs–we have lots and lots of wicked issues.”