Drop a stone into a pond and you’ll see the ripples in the water. Send a police officer out on a crosswalk and you’ll see drivers slowing down for pedestrians nearby. For February’s Operation Best Foot Forward, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office received requests to conduct enforcement at two crosswalks not currently monitored by BFF, but in very close proximity to monitored locations, and yield rates jumped as much as 63 percent.
The police cracked down on crosswalk violators at Waterford Lakes Parkway and Coquina Rock Street, near the BFF monitored crosswalk Woodbury Road and Mallory Circle. The second new location was Landstar Boulevard and Misley Drive, just a hop skip and a jump from the BFF monitored crosswalk at Landstar Boulevard and Brook Hollow Drive. Data collection occurred before and after the high-visibility enforcement efforts to calculate driver yield rates. Both BFF monitored locations saw an increase in drivers yielding – from simply being in proximity of crosswalks that were enforced – the ripple effect in action.
More good Operation Best Foot Forward news in the City of Orlando!
The city saw increased yield rates at four of the enforced crosswalks. The most impressive increases were at Lake Underhill Road and Palmer Street, which jumped from 46.8 percent to 56 percent; Edgewater Drive and Shady Lane, which increased from 25.8 percent to 29.4 percent; and Lee Vista Boulevard and Odyssey Middle School, which started with a very low yield rate of 0.4 percent and increased to 5.9 percent.
Operation Best Foot Forward received coverage from six TV stations, two radio stations and four digital print outlets equaling $180,000 in media coverage value and engaging 257,000 pro-ped people through BFF’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Local motorists got the message too with the 114 citations– a fine of $164 or 3 points to their driver’s license – and 78 warnings from the Orlando Police Department (OPD) and Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OSCO) for failing to yield to a ped crossing in a marked crosswalk as Florida statute requires.
