(Photo Credit: Spectrum News/Jerry Hume)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The finishing touches are being made to safety improvements proposed for one of the busiest stretches of Daytona Beach.
From International Speedway Boulevard to Seabreeze Boulevard, 711 crashes have occurred in five years on A1A, with seven people killed.
“That’s like one of the scariest spots because people will make U-turns sometimes and I’m helping a customer here, and they will get super close,” says Abdullatif Alaradi, who works at a shop along A1A. “And I’m like, ‘please don’t hit me from the back, please don’t hit me.’ I’m afraid the car will just crash into the store from the back.”
No cars have crashed into him yet, thankfully.
“I feel like we have urgency to clean up A1A,” consultant Maryam Ghyabi-White says.
She is working with the Florida Department of Transportation to bring innovative ideas to try to prevent crashes and improve safety.
"(There is) a lot of speeding, so we are doing chicaning, which kind of curves to A1A, and that will encourage people to reduce the speed," Ghyabi-White says.
Residents and visitors can expect wider sidewalks, but no land will have to be acquired for the improvements, she says.
“We’re going to use Zicla Zipper, which is a system they use in Spain," Ghyabi-White says. "It’s a modular system that goes to the pavement. And it’s very strong, but it will stop the cars from going into the bike lane.”
The public can get a firsthand look at the proposed concepts for A1A at the Ocean Center in early November.
Funding and a project timeline haven't been set yet.
Source: Spectrum News 13