Transportation Department staff last monitored vehicle speeds on 5th Avenue N in May of 2012, after changing the speed limit from 30 MPH to 25 MPH. Based on the data recorded Police enforcement was requested. We will reschedule a count in order to determine if Speed Humps are required. If we can confirm 24-hour operating speeds exceed 35 MPH, it would qualify and we would need a resident to circulate a petition. I will contact you with the results when completed.

The department was also contacted by Council Member Rice last year regarding a sidewalk and we conducted a 12-hour count to record 120 bikers and pedestrians. We are considering the installation of a sidewalk as a result. The issue is of course funding, as there is no dedicated funding source to construct sidewalks on local roadways. We continue to pursue options.

We can certainly get a petition distributed. As we have wanted something done for this roadway for a bit now. Our neighborhood has a meeting the first Wednesday of the month from 7-8pm at 1735 48th Ave N.

Thano you

Thank you for your prompt attention. Hopefully, speed humps can be implemented quickly and a funding source can be found for sidewalks. 50th Ave N is becoming a busy thoroughfare due to it being an easy connector between 16th St and Haines Road / 28th St / and I-275 via 22nd St. Also have large pedestrian traffic due to proximity to schools an Roberts Youth Center.

Traffic studies are back and this section of 50th Avenue N qualifies for speed humps with 24-hr average operating speeds over 35 MPH. Please advise me where I can send a petition.

What is required of the petition, and why is it required? It is obvious a speeding problem exists on 50th Ave N, and it has become more of a thoroughfare than a residential street. Partly because only 2 stop signs exist between 16th St to the east and Haines Road to the west. These conditions have helped to create the problem.

And I am sure traffic counts would show 50th Ave N has a high amount of vehicles for a residential street. It also has a high amount of pedestrian traffic without any sidewalks. And the pedestrian traffic is primarily youths ranging from elementary school age to high school age.

Speed humps have already been installed on the stretches of 50th Ave N between 4th St & 9th St and also along the stretch from 9th St to 16th St. It now seems that conditions dictate that the speed humps be added along the stretch from 16th St to 22nd St to slow down the traffic through a residential neighborhood.

The modification of any roadway requires a "public process", by State Statute. City Council has deemed that a petition and neighborhood approval is our process to inform the public of this modification. All roadways are required to complete this process before any type of traffic calming is considered.

You can forward it to my address at 5101 18th St N. What is the threshold to be considered neighborhood approval? Is it a percentage of residents or minimum number of signatures required? Thanks.

We are having a neighborhood meeting this Wednesday June 3rd at our neighbor's porch at 1735 48th Ave N from 7-8pm. We've talked about 50th Avenue several times and we can help to get this taken care of as we have also noticed an issue with traffice.

Once we received the signed petition for speed hump(s) I will forward to the association for their consideration.

We discussed this issue tonight and many of the neighbors are wanting some form of traffic calming for this stretch of road. Also, a sidewalk for the children that walk through the neighborhood to the schools on 54th Ave N as it posses a hazard to both drivers and the students.

Mr. Palmer,

Once I get the petition back with at least 2/3rds signatures in favor I will send you a letter requesting the associations approval to install speed hump(s).

Michael, what is the status of this request?

Transportation Department staff completed 24-hour speed studies in May of 2015 and confirmed that the average operating speed was 36.18 MPH. This qualifies for speed humps and a petition was mailed to this reported. To date we have not had the petition returned. The City can not consider installation of speed humps unless at least 2/3 rds of the residents along the roadway sign the petition in favor and the Neighborhood Association agrees to amend their approved Traffic Plan.

Transportation Department was able to fund installation of sidewalks on one side of 50th Avenue N between Haines Road and 12th Street in the FY-16 Work Program. The project is currently in design and we have no plans to share yet. As soon as they are available I will forward to the neighborhood for comments.

The neighborhood association president hasn't received or been notified of any petitions that were mailed out to the neighbors to help notify neighbors.

Where were the petitions mailed? To the neighbors only on 50th Avenue N?

The vehical speeding and pedestrian (students at the nearby elementary, middle & high schools) traffic have been an issues for years now.

Our next meeting is scheduled on April 6, 7-8pm at 1735 48th Ave N. GreaterGrovemont@gmail.com

Per instruction above, the petition was mailed to the reporter Renarzinsky 5101 - 18th Street N. Signatures from at least 2/3 rds of affected residences along 50th Avenue N are required on this petition, before we can consider speed humps.

I do not regularly monitor this post and I'm not been given electronic notifications of new posts. Please direct any further comments regarding to my City e-mail at michael.frederick@stpete.org.

Thanks Michael. Can you please be specific when sending the petition again? Which blocks do we need resident approvals? For example, if a speed hump was placed at X address, you need 2/3 approval from people within x feet. 50th Ave is a long street. Officer Merritt even agreed during our neighborhood meeting that 50th Ave is a drag strip and has been for many years. It'd be nice to put this issue to bed.

For further discussion of this issue, please contact the Neighborhood Transportation Department directly:

http://www.stpete.org/transportation/neighborhood_transportation.php

It'd be nice if you explained why this issue needed to be closed and a seperate, private discussion was needed?

Don't really think this issue has been solved and should remain open. We can use another avenue to discuss the issue, but until there has been actual movement to either install speed humps or other traffic calming then it should remain open for everyone to see it's progress.

The Neighborhood Transportation Department staff have requested that further discussion of this issue be directed to them via phone or email. Contact information may be found with the above link.

Correct and we can do that but this issue hasn't been solved to be sent into the 'closed.' When the process is completed I can see the issue being closed.

Michael Frederick stated last year that sidewalks were funded in the FY-16 work program for 50th Ave N between Haines Rd & 12th St. What is the status?

The Engineering Department is still in design. Hopefully they will be completed this month and we can start construction.

Thank you.

What is the status of the sidewalks along 50th Ave N from 16th St to Haines Rd? It has been 4 months since Michael Frederick stated it was in Engineering.
Thank you.

Sidewalk is at 100% design for 50th Avenue N between 14th & 23rd Streets.

We appreciate your patience as we worked through all the various design considerations in order to provide the best pedestrian facility possible. It was a difficult journey to get to this point, as the engineer’s worked diligently to retro-fit in the sidewalk along a corridor with many obstacles. Typically, we install new sidewalk in a straight line one-foot off the property line. In this case that would have destroyed much of the home owner’s landscape and required significant retaining walls to deal with the grade issues. The engineer’s therefore took their time to alter the path of the sidewalk within the existing right-of-way, in order to miss as much of the major landscaping and grade issues. I’m sure their will however, still be some residents that will have issues with the design for a variety of reasons and we are willing to work with them as much as practical, in order to alleviate major concerns. This work will be performed by City crews, in order to be more sensitive to the home owners than a contractor typically would be.

The engineer’s and construction team is taking one last look at the design in the field before finalizing the plans. I will be available to discuss this project at the July neighborhood meeting prior to construction, which is scheduled for late summer / early fall.

We look forward to a successful project and completion of a facility that will help increase the safety for all the students and residents along the corridor.

Thanks –

Thank you for the in-depth update. Sounds like much progress has been made. I am sure the finished project will be appreciated by (almost) all neighbors and residents who have walked along 50th Ave with a continuous stream of traffic passing by. Thanks again.

The engineer’s and construction team's “finalized plans” clearly were not finalized. The plans were for construction of the sidewalk on the south side of 50th Ave N. from 275 to 16th St. N. Construction of the sidewalk on the south side of 50th Ave N. finally began around the end of November/first of December 2017. Construction on the sidewalk started at 275 and progressed to 19th St N. and from then construction jumped to the north side of the street which was not what the “finalized plans” provided. After the sidewalk was framed out to be poured on the north side of 50th Ave N, the construction stopped. This was prior to Christmas. The construction area was left in a hazardous condition. I have even seen a vehicle have to be pulled sideways with a tow strap out of the framed out sidewalk area at the edge of the alley. Further, there is irrigation plumbing and piles of dirt making it impossible for pedestrians to get out of the street when walking on that side of the street. Additionally, I have observed on numerous occasions, pedestrians walking on 50th Ave N from Haines to 16th St. N who have been walking on the sidewalk on the south side of the street and continue to walk in the yards of the residents of the south side of the street once the sidewalk ends at 19th St. N.
The reason the neighborhood has been trying for years to have sidewalks and speed tables constructed on this stretch of roadway was due to the high number of pedestrian traffic, much of it school ages children walking to school, in conjunction with the high volume and high speed of automobile traffic. The stretch of road is well known to be a "drag strip", even to local law enforcement. The construction team was also witness to the traffic speeds and impatient and dangerous drivers who drove into residents’ yards to go around their work trucks and machinery, ignoring the workers that were directing traffic.
Prior to the work stoppage, I was told by the workers that the design was changed because of the slope of the yards on the south side of 50th Ave N from 19th to 16th Street. I find it hard to believe that the slope was not taken into account in the 1-2 years of planning and multiple visits to the site to measure and mark with flags the location of the sidewalk. Regardless, it seems negligent to jump to the north side of the street at an intersection where drivers regularly ignore the stop sign at a high rate of speed.
The construction needs to be completed, taking into consideration the increased danger to pedestrians that must cross at the intersection of 19th St. N to continue on walking on the sidewalk. Just this morning while working on this posting, I observed multiple pedestrians walking their dogs while attempting to maneuver the obstacle course of the partial construction, debris, and the speeding traffic including an approximately 12 yr old boy walking three dogs.

Residents’ yards have been left in shambles due to their yards being dug up and left for close to 2 months with flashing barricades everywhere. I commend the city for the speed at which they completed the initial stretch. Although there is still one spot with a break in the sidewalk around 20th St that was left unfinished. But to leave the section east of 19th St is unacceptable and needs to be completed.

Just like we have concrete sewar drains that are demolished at the corner of Queen St and 52nd Ave N and left for over a month with barricades and caution tape. It’s just a matter of time before some school age children are playing around these hazards and get hurt.

The City of St. Petersburg recently suspended construction of the above noted sidewalk in response to concerns expressed by residents regarding grade and landscaping issues. These issues have now been addresses and we will again be resuming with construction of a modified design.

To clarify, it is the City’s objective to construct a continuous sidewalk through the above noted limits, however numerous considerations were taken into account resulting in the shifting of the segment between 12th and 19th Streets from the south to north side of the roadway. The issues are outlined as follows:

• Grade difference of over 2 ½ feet between property line and pavement resulting in not being able to meet ADA standards for cross slope.

• Existing foliage along the south side including mature trees, which would have to be removed to facilitate the sidewalk.

• Some residents have very short driveways and a sidewalk through the driveway would result in vehicles parking over the sidewalk illegally.

Therefore, based on the above noted conditions, an alternate / compliant route to maintain safety for users that is constructible, based on ADA guidelines and within the allocated budget, was selected. We believe the negative impacts on residents will be fewer with a north side construction, rather than south.

A future sidewalk along the east side of 19th Street between 39th and 52nd Avenues N will assist in a safe crossing at the all-way stop on 50th Avenue N. The new alignment will also help facilitate a safe pedestrian / bicycle crossing at 16th Street with a new rapid flashing beacon.

While we are sensitive to residents’ concerns regarding new sidewalks built on the rights-of-way in front of homes; the safety, health, and transportation benefits provided by such projects justify moving forward with advancement of this project. This is particularly true when targeted to improve safety concerns – like what is present along 50th Avenue N.

Thank you for the support we have received to date and for your anticipated support as we move forward and should you have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to contact Michael Frederick, Manager – Neighborhood Transportation at 893-7843.

Thank you for the update. Glad to hear the project is back on track.

Thank you for your past submission via SeeClickFix. The City of St Petersburg periodically reviews past reports that are made from citizens within our city limits, and in an effort to clean-up old issues that were resolved some time ago, we are marking as 'closed' those issues that were submitted in the past for which the work has been completed or the issue has otherwise been resolved.

If you think for any reason that the issue you submitted in the past might still be unresolved, please feel free to submit a new report with the SeeClickFix St. Pete website and we will make sure the issue is directed to the appropriate City department to be addressed as soon as possible.

Thank you again - Sincerely,
Mayor's Action Center

Hopefullly work will resume soon on the sidewalk. It is in desperate need of completion. Since the yards were torn up to begin the sidewalk, there is nowhere to step off the street when speeding cars are approaching. (Unless you want to step in a big pile of dirt.)

Crews have started back today to complete the sidewalk