About Alert Today Florida

Florida’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Focused Initiative

Florida is composed of 67 counties with more than 123,000 miles of public roads. Because of Florida’s size, the pedestrian and bicycle safety program focuses its efforts on the counties where the opportunities for improvement are the greatest. Florida’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Focused Initiative implements a targeted program combining high visibility education and enforcement with strategic community level communications in the 25 counties with the highest representation of crashes resulting in pedestrian and bicyclist serious and fatal injuries.

Florida Transportation Plan

The Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) is the single overarching statewide plan guiding Florida’s transportation future. It is a plan for all of Florida created by, and providing direction to, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and all organizations that are involved in planning and managing Florida’s transportation system, including statewide, regional, and local partners. The FTP fulfills the requirements established in Chapter 339.155, Florida Statutes.

Florida’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan

Florida’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) was developed as a part of the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP) Implementation Element to address highway safety and aligns with the FTP Vision Element and FTP Policy Element. The SHSP is a statewide, data-driven safety plan for all of Florida’s road users. The SHSP is the state’s five-year comprehensive roadway safety plan for achieving Florida’s vision of zero traffic-related fatalities. The SHSP includes 13 Emphasis Areas that guide Florida’s safety efforts.

Florida’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Safety Plan

Florida’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Safety Plan (PBSSP) is the state’s five-year comprehensive implementation plan to drive down traffic crashes resulting in serious or fatal injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists through goal-oriented decision-making, data-driven investments, and strategic resource allocation. The PBSSP supports the Florida Transportation Plan, Florida’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, and Florida’s Highway Safety Improvement Program.

The Goal of the PBSSP is to

• Advance data collection, analysis, and evaluation.
• Establish clear priorities that guide the implementation of safety strategies towards areas with the highest representation of traffic crashes resulting in fatalities or serious injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists.
• Eliminate pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities and serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes on public roads by decreasing the number of non-motorized fatalities and non-motorized serious injuries based on the five-year rolling average as established in the State Highway Safety Improvement Plan and/or Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Florida’s focus on the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists is a dynamic and coordinated effort that includes many individuals and partners. Implementation of the PBSSP is guided by the Statewide Champion for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety and Florida’s Bicycle Pedestrian Focused Initiative Leadership Team.

The comprehensive application of education and enforcement combined with engineering and emergency response elements has proven to be the most effective method of crash mitigation and fatality reduction.

Florida’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Coalition is a diverse group of federal, state, local, and public partners, and stakeholders who are charged with implementing goals, objectives, and strategies within Florida's Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Safety Plan. The team focuses on the following seven emphasis areas:

1. Data, Analysis, and Evaluation
2. Law Enforcement
3. Driver Education & Licensing and Legislation, Regulation & Policy (Policy & Programs)
4. Planning, Design, and Operations (Engineering)
5. Communication, Outreach, and Education
6. Emergency Medical Services
   
7. Vision Zero Florida

Each Emphasis Area is led by a Goal Leader who is charged with directing the implementation of key strategies to drive down traffic crashes resulting in serious or fatal injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists.

Coalition members are active participants who are expected to:

• Attend and actively participate in a minimum of three quarterly Coalition meetings and three mid-quarter conference calls annually (travel costs are covered by a grant)
• Actively participate in assigned emphasis area