Published March 2026
While pedestrian safety is important across the whole world, in urban areas such as St. Petersburg, this importance is emphasized as there is a significantly large amount of both pedestrians and large roads with aloof drivers. Of course, many structures and systems have been put in place to ensure pedestrian safety, but most times this is not enough. Whether it’s crosswalks, stop signs, or speed limits, drivers in St. Petersburg often ignore these and continue to endanger citizens. These examples are not just hypothetical. Every member of our team has in some way experienced the negative effects of poor infrastructure for pedestrians across the city. As students who rode the bus to school, crossing busy streets was a very frequent experience. In the Disston Heights area I used to cross a very busy street to get to my stop. Most days I would have to wait 5-10 minutes to be able to cross because even though there was a crosswalk, hardly any cars paid attention or stopped to let children cross. Even when I was able to cross, it was still dangerous as the gaps between cars coming through were very short and I had to go quick. My family once even called the city to ask if a light could be installed with the crosswalk, or even a simple stop sign to make sure that the road was safe for young children, but they never responded. These experiences are definitely not isolated; as of 2021, Bay News 9 reported that Pinellas County has the highest percentage of pedestrian-related incidents in the entire state of Florida. Just earlier this school year a member of our school’s cross-country team was struck by a speeding car while running in the street during practice, making him unable to use his legs for months. Almost everyone I know has either experienced personally or knows someone who has experienced the many problems facing St. Petersburg pedestrian infrastructure and ignorant drivers. So, to further get an idea of the problems other members of our community have been facing, we sent out a survey.
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