ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The City of St. Petersburg, along with Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, and the Florida Department of Transportation, have partnered up in an initiative to identify strategies to improve walking, biking, and transit across South St. Petersburg neighborhoods.
“This is an area that’s been identified as having poverty challenges,” said Cheryl Stacks, transportation manager for the City of St. Petersburg.
The city, PSTA, and FDOT are working on a study right now.
“It’s important to us to make sure we’re looking at transportation options equitably across the city and meeting people where they are. We're trying to make sure that they have every opportunity to thrive in St. Petersburg and that transportation doesn’t present a barrier to them to do that,” said Stacks.
The final workshop for this phase of the study to get community input is Wednesday, January 29.
- Campbell Park Recreation Center
- 601 14th St. S., St. Petersburg
- 6 p.m.-8 p.m.
“The purpose of the workshops is really for us to remind the community that we’re in the middle of this study to identify transportation improvements and mobility improvements within the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area,” said Stacks.
Many people who live in the South St. Pete area don’t have access to a car so they either have to walk to their destination or take the bus.
Leaders want to find ways to make it easier for people to get around.
“We’re really focused on transportation improvements that might not always involve a car. So we’re looking at people how they might be able to see bus improvements, and improvements in transit. How could they have improvements in bicycling, and walking, and pedestrian infrastructure so that it’s easier to get around? What improvements would they like to see for crosswalks, for lighting? Are there any improvements along the Pinellas Trail that they would be interested in seeing?” Said Stacks.
That's the kind of input they're hoping to get from this community workshop.
There is grant money available, and project leaders want to hear from the community about how they’d like that money prioritized.
“It’s really important for us to hear directly from people in the community so that we can understand exactly directly from them what are the challenges that they’e facing and what are those barrier so that we can start to help,” said stacks.
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