By ANNE LINDBERG, TB Reporter

The crackdown in St. Petersburg, Largo and Pinellas Park is the second phase of an FDOT grant designed to promote pedestrian and bicycle safety.

PINELLAS COUNTY – Three of Pinellas County’s largest cities are beefing up enforcement of traffic rules for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The enhanced enforcement comes as the second phase in a grant each of the cities received from the Florida Department of Transportation that’s designed to improve safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. In the first phase, the St. Petersburg, Largo and Pinellas Park police departments worked on educating pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists about safety and the rules of the road. Now that phase has ended and the three cities have moved into enforcing those rules.

The enforcement phase began Saturday (April 1) in Largo, with special details that will focus on roads that are considered high crash areas for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The enforcement phase begins today (April 3) in St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park.

St. Petersburg police plan to kick off their enforcement phase with a special detail that will run from 10 a.m. through 2 p.m. in the area of 4th Street N between 5th and 22nd avenues. The special detail will target people who ignore bike and pedestrian traffic rules. Pedestrian and bicycle citation fines are $62.50.

In Pinellas Park, officers will be handing out tickets rather than warnings for violations.

“We hope that our efforts will increase awareness for everyone involved,” Pinellas Park police Sgt. Taichiang Ku, special operations supervisor, said. “Reducing crashes, and preventing tragic loss of life is our ultimate goal.”

St. Petersburg Police | Largo Police | Pinellas Park Police | Pedestrians | Bicycle | TB Reporter

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