“They showed up one day,” said Kevin Graham, director of Security.
The City of Melbourne has installed several new stop signs throughout the campus. This came as a result of the City getting a federal grant through the Safe Routes to Schools program and conducting a study on safety and transportation within the surrounding neighborhood, according to Greg Tsark, the university architect.
Several speed humps were raised in the neighborhood next to the campus west of University Boulevard, and crosswalks were put in to promote student safety.
This semester, a three-way stop is new — on the intersection of Country Club Road and University Boulevard intersection.
Both Tsark and Graham have confirmed that the three-way stop seems to have created congestion on University Boulevard and Country Club Road during peak times of the day, rush hours and class changes.
But the stop signs are here to stay.
Tsark said that while the signs may create congestion during peak times, they can help stop incoming traffic from the neighborhood west of University Boulevard from hitting any pedestrians that are trying to cross in the crosswalks.
Graham echoed that sentiment as well. “It actually does provide a large measure of protection for our students,” Graham said.
Florida Tech Security is still having issues with bicycle and skateboard safety in the crosswalks. “We want to make sure they’re safely crossing. We’re still having issues with people passing on bicycles and people on skateboards not stopping,” Graham said.
Technically, bicycles and skateboards are required to stop before crossing the crosswalk. This is to prevent getting hit or hitting others.
“I’ve seen people with skateboards stop on a dime, and they’re really good skateboarders,” Graham said. “But I’ve seen some people where the riders landed 10 ft. in front of the skateboard.”
Eventually, Tsark would like to corral all of the traffic down to one bigger crosswalk.
“It’ll make the bigger crosswalk very active,” Tsark said. “When you do that, the other thing you might want to do is to signalize the crosswalk and tell people when to stop and when to go, instead of the people coming and crossing.”
Plans to widen the crosswalk are not finalized, but are on Tsark’s radar.
