Lee County's second law enforcement bicycle and pedestrian safety initiatives meeting held on March 14th

Thanks to FDOT's Carmen Monroy and Commissioner Pendergrass for organizing this 2nd law enforcement meeting.

On Friday, March 14th, Commissioner Pendergrass and FDOT officials convened the second meeting with local law enforcement officials from all jurisdictions as part of a dialogue about bike/ped safety and enforcement issues and  implementation of the Lee MPO Bicycle Pedestrian Safety Action Plan.

The meeting was hosted by FDOT, with presentations from Carmen Monroy, the Director the of the SW Area Office, and Matt Weaver, District 1 bike/ped safety champion.  All local law enforcement agencies were represented (except Sanibel), including the State Attorney's office, along with MPO Executive Director, and other attendees from FDOT.  Also participating were attendees from the Injury Prevention Coalition (IPC), LMHS Trauma Center, Stay Alive..Just Drive! (SAJD), and BikeWalkLee.

The Fort Myers Police Department highlighted their recent crosswalk enforcement initiative on McGregor Blvd.; and FHP talked about their upcoming March 26th "Operation Peds" initiative, modeled after one in Manatee County.  They plan to do one once a quarter in "hot spots".  BikeWalkLee will participate with handout materials.  The focus on this initiative is more education than citations and the media will be invited to participate.

Both the FHP and the Sheriff's Office are working with FDOT on applying for some of their bike/ped safety grant funds. 

One of the next steps in the safety initiative will be to conduct in-depth Road Safety Audits (an FDOT program) on the top four "hot spot" areas in Lee County.

FDOT's bike/ped safety initiative also has a new tent that can be used at any area event to promote bike/ped safety and is equipped with handout materials, along with safety vests, bike lights, etc. If your group is interested in having FDOT bring their tent to your event, please contact Matt Weaver: (Matthew.Weaver@dot.state.fl.us)

NBC-2 News covered the meeting and posted this story, which included an interview with BikeWalkLee's Dan Moser.