OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The City of Ocala held a public meeting for Safe Streets and Roads for All, Sept. 4, 2025, at the Mary Sue Rich Community Center at Reed Place.
The objective of the program is to achieve zero fatalities and zero serious injuries by the year 2045, as part of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Target Zero campaign. The City of Ocala is piggybacking off of the initiative of the FDOT and the Ocala/Marion County Planning and Transportation Organization to make the area’s roadways safer.
There are a number of variables that will help to make streets safer, and that can be done through behavior modification, education, technology, communication and engineering, said Noel Cooper, City of Ocala civil engineer.
“From a city point of view, we want to be able to design safer roads according to current standards,” said Cooper, with schools and residential areas being a target of the study.
One way to make roads safer, is to make those citizens operating vehicles on the road understand that their behavior plays an important role, whether it’s distracted or aggressive driving, to reduce the number of crashes, said Cooper.
“Drivers need to understand and realize, it only takes a second for them to be distracted, taking their eyes off the road and be in a collision,” said Cooper.
The project has two phases, a local road safety plan, and there’s also a speed management action plan and traffic calming policy. It’s extremely important to be aware of those vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists.
“Speed management and driving at safe speeds is a huge part of this,” said Christy Lafoye, Ardurra Group consultant. “We have proven safety counter measures that come out from FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). People need to be aware of their surroundings. We want people to get home safely. If a pedestrian is hit at 40 mph, there’s only a 10% chance of survival.”
Traffic calming devices can also be incorporated into the city’s policies, said Lafoye.