The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office received a renewal on their contract from the Florida Department of Transportations, or FDOT, for High Visibility Enforcement of Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety.
The initiative’s purpose is to continue educating and enforcing safe pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorist behavior in designated locations.
The efforts include reducing traffic crashes and fatalities involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
Officers will distribute educational materials and citations on road safety laws to pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists per Florida Statutes.
The term will run through May 9, 2025.
High Visibility Enforcement, or HVE, is when more officers are out and are focused on traffic safety and patrolling the areas more frequently.
The HVE details will be held at 15 locations throughout Pinellas County identified as high crash areas for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Jamie Miller is with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
Miller is part of the initiative and said she hopes it will educate residents on how to be safe when out on the streets.
“The deputies that are going to be out on the High Visibility Enforcement, they will be passing out things to people they stop or pass by,” she said.
The deputies patrolling the areas will be handing out pamphlets to the people they encounter.
Miller said she doesn’t want this to seem like a tactic for officers to write more citations, but to help residents teach others about the rules on the road.
“It’s not just us trying to go out there and give out more citations and warnings, we are trying to educate pedestrians and bicyclists,” Miller said. “Bicyclists do need to follow the rules of the road by following the flow of traffic and pedestrians actually need to go against the flow of traffic.”
The initiative aims to share more information on these Florida laws, so people will know what is a violation or not and how to be safe.
Other areas Miller hopes the program will increase education on are:
- Wearing a helmet properly if 16 and younger
- Use crosswalks
- Don’t assume a car is stopping for you, always proceed with caution
- Be visible in the dark
- Know which way you are supposed to be walking or riding on the streets
- Bicyclists ride with the flow of traffic
- Pedestrians walk against the flow of traffic
Along with sharing education tips, Miller said that lights will be given out to bicyclists who ride in the dark to help make them more visible to motor vehicles.
She said that they want to help reduce fatalities and crashes and having these resources can be a step to that.
If one does not receive a physical pamphlet, an online resource with laws in place for pedestrians and bicyclists can be found here.
