Right-Sizing Drew Street for Safety, Accessibility and Mobility
By Whit Blanton, FAICP The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is preparing design plans for Drew Street between North Osceola Avenue and US 19, with about $8 million in place…
A Look Back at 2021
By Whit Blanton, FAICP One thing we’ve learned from the last two years is the critically important 4-way intersection of community, economics, transportation, and health. Through a global pandemic, economic…
Turning Words into Action
By Whit Blanton, FAICP and Angela Ryan At the City of Dunedin City Commission Workshop, Tuesday, December 12, 2021, Mayor Buljalski and her fellow commissioners put their words into action,…
Next Steps for Passenger Rail in Florida and Tampa Bay
By Whit Blanton, FAICP Regional leaders formally renewed discussions of developing passenger rail in Tampa Bay with state officials from the Florida Department of Transportation last week. The meeting, hosted…
Saving Our Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons Means Saving Lives
By Whit Blanton, FAICP During the last two sessions, the Florida Legislature has introduced and advanced bills that purport to be about pedestrian safety by modifying or restricting use of…
Proposed Law Would Put Pedestrians At Risk
Florida is in the middle of its legislative session for 2021, which ends on April 30. During this time each year, state lawmakers debate whether to pass bills that could…
Electric Bicycles Give Rise to a New Mobility and Some Questions
By Whit Blanton Perhaps you’ve seen them? The fat-tired, bulky framed or squat bicycles with the bulging disk of a heavy, black battery sitting on the rear rack or inside…
Introducing Amy Elmore
We are delighted to welcome Amy Elmore aboard as Forward Pinellas’ Communications & Outreach Program Manager. One of the most important things we do as an agency is to work…
The Problem with Earmarks
Sometimes doing a good deed does not turn out all that well in the end. As the 2020 Florida Legislative Session begins, we need to discuss earmarks, those legislator-added line…
Planning for saving lives over saving time
You read about them in the paper just about every day: an elderly man killed crossing 34th Street S in St. Petersburg, hit by a driver at 1:42 AM. Or maybe…
Lessons learned from St. Louis
While building transportation projects is a contentious process in Tampa Bay, we are not alone in struggling to engage the community and get projects done. I wrote in my previous…
Building community by learning from others
One of the first lessons I learned as a consultant many years ago is that every community has its own public decision-making process. What flies by with no commentary in…