The ride west of Dixie is an entirely different story. Most of the ride is safe until you approach Okeechobee Blvd. Motorists are focused on other cars and many of them heading to I-95 and gunning it up the ramps. It's all about speed and the wide lanes that encourage that behavior. At least with that route to West Palm, you are crossing it at a traffic-lighted intersection.
Now a group of citizens has formed to deal with this hazard further east on Okeechobee and they are proposing a skywalk over Okeechobee Blvd. A skywalk would be cheaper than a tunnel. Either way, something has to be done to get pedestrians and bicyclists from one side of the boulevard to the other, safely away from the motor vehicles.
Here from the article by Tony Doris and Eliot Kleinberg (contributing):
Prodded by a citizens’ petition that quickly fielded 1,500 signatures, city and Palm Beach County officials are preparing to meet with traffic engineers and state transportation department officials to discuss the possibility of a walkway over the eight-lane boulevard, as well as street-level safety improvements.Let's hope that FDOT embraces change and new ideas. It's time to walk the walk, so to speak.
No date has been scheduled, but city spokesman Elliot Cohen said Wednesday that “sooner rather than later” is the plan.
Steven Perelman and Ruth Kurtz, co-leaders of WPB Citizens for Pedestrian Safety, say they got 900 signatures in the first weekend they brought out the petition in February calling for a skywalk. Another 600 have signed since then, said Perelman, vice president of the CityPlace South Tower property owners association.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
