This situation has existed ever since the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale (AIFL) acquired the two properties (formerly motels) adjacent to the east and west sides of US 1 to the north of Sunrise Boulevard over ten years ago. The Florida Department of Transportation was contacted soon after their students occupied the dormatories here due to concerns associated with crossing the road to use shared facilities.

When any new type of development is built adjacent to a given State maintained highway, it is the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) position that it is the property owner's responsibility to address any traffic related problems that are created by the additional vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic generated by their facility . Although it would ultimately be the responsibility of AIFL to mitigate the pedestrian related problem FDOT staff visitied the site and felt that little could be done to facilitate safe pedestrian crossing in the area using standard traffic control devices, such as a pedestrian signal, due to the proximity of the complex US 1 / Sunrise Boulevard intersection and other site specific traffic conditions.

This determination was shared with AIFL administrative staff and they were informed that if they desired to engage the services of a consulting firm with traffic engineering expertise to conduct a more in-depth study to assess this situation the Department would review the study results and allow AIFL to implement and corrective measures deemed appropriate at their expense after obtaining a permit. The feasiblilty of providing a pedestrian overpass was also raised and because solely AIFL's facilities would be served, it would be their responsibility to first formally demonstrate that such a structure is warranted. If FDOT concurred with the study recommendations, AIFL would then be responsible for it's design, construction and maintenance.

This was done to address a similar but larger scale pedestrian crossing issue for patrons of the Swap Shop on west Sunrise Boulevard. Ultimately, the property owner did construct an overpass to allow pedestrians to cross Sunrise Boulevard and although mid-block crossing are still made by may of their customers the situation has been significantly improved. FDOT remains receptive to working with AIFL in order to improve the current situation but maintain that they should initiate the dialogue.

Please contact me at any time if you'd like to provide additional input regarding this matter of concern. Thank you for your interest in highway safety.

Rick Mitinger, P.E.
District Safety Engineer
Florida Department of Transportation
3400 West Commercial Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
954-777-4355
richard.mitinger@dot.state.fl.us