TABLE 3—

Supports and Barriers Related to Implementing Florida Statute 335.065: Quotations From Interviewees, 2015

Supports and Barriers	Quotations from Interviewees
Supports
Complementary state transportation policies	“[Statute 335.065] cannot be looked at in isolation from other requirements in state law. . . . When you look at the state statutes, you also have to look at the overall planning framework in Florida to better understand how these requirements work together and support each other in achieving the overall state policies.”
Funding	“I’d say on the infrastructure side, funding is not an issue. I mean, the types of things that need to be done to improve pedestrian safety don’t really increase costs by any significant amount. And some of those things, like for instance, if we were talking about adding street lighting to a road—that benefits all users. And so, no, I don’t think the costs on the infrastructure side are really a problem or a hindrance.”
Leadership within transportation agencies	“I think what made [Statute 335.065] implementable was truly having the right governance, the right structure in place, having the [Department of Transportation] that over time was in that process of turning itself around. Maybe not doing it as fast as I certainly would’ve liked . . . but still exhibiting good leadership and being willing to do things in a different way.”
Trained state and local transportation staff	“We needed people below the district bicycle and pedestrian coordinators who would be able to get projects on the ground and truly make sure that they were overseen with the right designs and things like that. . . . Nobody could just pass a law like [Statute 335.065] and have any change; that’s just not how governments work. You have to have key people who get trained, who are very proud of what they’ve learned how to do, and have the competency and the courage to go against their own fears to build something different than what they had been building in the past.”
Barriers
Lack of state oversight and local accountability	“If there is not accountability, it [makes] no difference what performance measurements or policies or statutes [say]. If there is no one holding people’s feet to the fire, it doesn’t get done.”
Inflexible land use and zoning policies	“Local governments and their land development regulations are a major contributor to this problem. But we can’t fix the problem without them. . . . You’re not addressing the comfort or efficiency needs of pedestrians when everything is set way back from the sidewalk. That’s why they’re critical to the whole Complete Streets effort.”
Uninformed decision-making by transportation agency staff and elected officials	“Honestly, if the legislature really believed in it and the traffic engineers who have all the power and call all of the shots really believed in it, then they would say a lot more of the money needs to be spent on the things that make a difference for the pedestrians’ and cyclists’ experience. Instead, what they do is they fight against those common sense things at every turn.”
Performance metrics that prioritize motor vehicles	“We did well what we thought we knew to do well. We provided a 5-foot sidewalk . . . that was it. Or we provided a bit of bike lane. But what was happening on the concurrency side is the state was consumed with the requirements—that we have adequate capacity for cars on roadways—and part of that was based on the ability of a car to get from location A to B in a timely manner and fast. And so we didn’t connect the dots very well between what was happening for the vehicle design and what was happening for the pedestrians and the bicyclists.”