TAMPA, Fla. — It’s a problem all over Tampa: sidewalks that end abruptly. Some streets have gaps in the sidewalk. Others have no sidewalk at all.
The problem leaves Carroll Anne Bennett beyond frustrated because of the risk it poses to pedestrians and bicyclists.
WATCH: Safety advocates push Tampa to close sidewalk loophole, fill gaps across city
“It’s infuriating,” she said. “What Tampa excels in, I mean really excels in, is killing its pedestrians.”
Bennett would like to see a change: more sidewalks and fewer exemptions for builders who choose not to add them, which creates gaps like those not far from her home in South Tampa.
“I actually got a map from the city that shows the gaps. It’s evenly spread out throughout the city,” she said.
A small but impactful change might be coming soon. Thursday, city leaders might delete an exemption that allows builders to pay a fee instead of building sidewalks in areas where there’s no existing sidewalk or areas where additional development is “unlikely.”
Emily Hinsdale, who advocates for pedestrian safety as president of Sidewalk Stompers, supports the change, which she says would encourage developers to build sidewalks even if they don’t connect immediately.
“We should be planning for tomorrow, not for today,” she said. “Tampa has over 1,200 miles of road with no sidewalks, which means a lot of people that don’t have places to walk or younger children to bike.”
The group Families for Strong Public Schools is also supporting the change through a letter-writing campaign.
However, not everyone is so strongly on board. A Change.org petition by a resident of the Tampa neighborhood of Culbreath Bayou seeks an exemption for the neighborhood, where no sidewalks are currently installed.
The proposal will go before the Tampa City Council during a meeting on Thursday.
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