With all due respect, your recent email about updates to the plan for improving pedestrian safety on Wilton Drive are more of the same, idle words. Not once did you address the problem of dangerous drivers. You continue to pursue band-aid type fixes which may or may not get implemented. Changing the timing of the crosswalk outside city hall was done YEARS ago! Changing the timing of that light again will have NO effectiveness whatsoever.
If you were really committed to making Wilton Drive safer, here is what you would do:
Enforce basic traffic laws. This means speeding, illegal turns, illegal u-turns, illegal lane changes, running lights and stop signs, failing to yield right-of-way to pedestrians especially during right and left hand turns, etc. The car that hit me several years ago did so while I was legally walking across the entrance to CVS. He was making an illegal right turn from the left lane. You continue to FAIL to address the traffic lawlessness.
Demand reduction of Wilton Drive to one lane each direction through the business district. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea did this on A1A. Wilton Manors should do this on Wilton Drive. Nothing fancy, just plastic posts shutting off traffic in the outer two lanes. That will prompt through traffic to take a different route.
Red light cameras along Wilton Drive. I have seen so many times when cars completely ran red lights without even slowing down. Text messaging is the most likely cause of this. Drivers will not change unless they face repeated tickets and hefty fines.
Lower the speed limit further. 20 mph would be much better than the current 30 mph speed limit when people are typically driving 40 or 50 mph down Wilton Drive.
It is a travesty that you did NOTHING until someone well-known in the community was killed by a car. You FAILED your job for years and years. Now you are finally doing some talk, but not nearly enough action. I will educate everyone I know who is a voter in Wilton Manors what a FAILURE Wilton Manors city government has been. Only after we replace you and the rest of the city commission with responsible people who will actually do something will Wilton Manors ever have a chance of being safer for pedestrians.
Sincerely,
George Hampton
Wilton Manors, FL
