Naranja Park Entrance is imminent danger to pedestrians
On April 24, we alerted you to the imminent danger for pedestrians at the entrance to the Naranja Park. There is no safe way to walk into the park. This is the park that Mayor Winfield and his council insisted on making a major regional attraction. The Mayor. "doubled down" on that at last Wednesday's Town Council meeting by declaring May 20, 2023 "Kids to Parks day." Well, we certainly hope that those kids do not walk to Naranja Park because they are facing imminent danger if they do.
The only safe passage for a pedestrian crossing a road is a marked crosswalk. There are none. [See panel right]. There are no signs alerting drivers that there might be passengers in the road. There are no signs alerting drivers that there may be pedestrians in unmarked crosswalks, though such would be virtually useless to a driver since they can't see the crosswalk. And the speed limit is 45 miles an hour, which is certainly too fast for an area where pedestrians might be crossing.
No place to go... No way to safely cross
The danger to pedestrians is obvious when you look at an overview of entrance [panel below, right]. The only safe passage for a pedestrian is if they are traveling east and are on the north side of Naranja. They can safely turn left into a protected pathway that parallels the park entry road. If you are a pedestrian who is anywhere else, getting to that entry is a dangerous challenge, requiring you to guess where the walkway is and then dart across Naranja Road to get to it.
Town has ignored the problem
We wrote the towns public works Director, Paul Keesler about this problem. He wrote us back saying that it was no problem. You can read his response in our April 24 posting. Needless to say, we were appalled. A child had been killed in that area. We had visited the area. We could not figure out how to safely cross the street to the pathway to the park.
"Solution" too far off and won't solve the problem
Keesler's focus is on building a multi-use path that will run on the north side of Naranja. His focus at the moment is on getting grant money to pay for it. (We guess the town forgot to include paths as a necessary infrastructure project, thus not including it in the $25 million parks bond). The path is not even planned yet. It won't be completed until June of 2025. Besides, a path on the north side of Naranja will not solve the challenge of crossing from the south side of the road.
We urged council to get involved
Recognizing this, we went to the Council meeting last Wednesday. During our "Call to Audience" moment [see panel left], we urged the Council to get involved.
We followed this up with an email to each Council member, urging their involvement. Only one has said they will do so. Mayor Winfield forwarded the email to the Town Manager, the Town Engineer, and Chief Riley "for review and response"
Keesler responded: "As I stated in my last response, we are continuing to work on options for Naranja Drive.
We have a Traffic Safety Committee meeting in a couple of weeks where we will be discussing said options.
I will follow up with you after that."
All other council members remain silent.
There are some quick and cheap fixes available
We don't think it is difficult or costly to substantially improve pedestrian safety in the area. Some marked crosswalks, a reduction in the speed limit, and some warning signs can make a big difference. The cost will be minimal.
We expect the Town Council to be personally involved to see that this problem gets fixed.
