Deputies with Osceola County Sheriff’s Office conducted Operation Best Forward’s first crosswalk enforcement of 2021.
Officials are stepping up enforcement in March when added risks for pedestrians are on the rise: more drivers on the roads, darker morning drive times when students are going to school and more drivers commuting to work as COVID-19 vaccinations become more available.
Last month, plainclothes deputies crossed streets at marked crosswalks to remind drivers and pedestrians about Florida’s driver yield laws, which included the crosswalk at Celebration Ave. and Lake Evalyn Dr.
Drivers who failed to stop for pedestrians in marked crosswalks, as Florida law requires, were issued either a warning or citation of a minimum of $164 and three (3) points on their license.
About Best Foot Forward for Pedestrian Safety Program – The Best Foot Forward for pedestrian safety program is administered by the local non-profit Bike/Walk Central Florida and first launched in Orange County and the City of Orlando in 2012. It expanded to Osceola County, Kissimmee and St. Cloud in 2017 and Seminole County in October 2019. Best Foot Forward is now made up of some 38-coalition partners across Central Florida.
Best Foot Forward was created to reverse the conflict between pedestrians and drivers by focusing on one specific behavior change – getting more drivers to yield for pedestrians at marked crosswalks as Florida law requires. More than a campaign, Best Foot Forward is a behavior change-based program designed to improve road safety through consistent and persistent education, high-visibility crosswalk enforcement and low-cost engineering at marked crosswalks near elementary schools and LYNX bus stops, in urban areas and cross-sections of low and high-speed roads.