CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Angry parents want Pinellas County officials to fix the problems along a busy county road with no sidewalks.
Anna Constantine won’t let her son walk or bike to Clearwater Central Catholic High School on Haines Bayshore Road. “They have absolutely no sidewalk to ride on out of the traffic. We can’t share the road; there’s no bike lane,” Constantine said.
The road is about one mile long. There is a sidewalk in front of the school, but News Channel 8 found bicyclists and walkers in the street.
“This one car driver beeped at us,” Xhong Jie Yin aid.
Yin attends Clearwater Central Catholic. He said there’s nowhere to go if there’s no sidewalk.
There are speeding cars and distracted drivers. Constantine said it’s an accident waiting to happen.
“A car could go six inches off onto the grass and oops,” she added.
Pinellas public works manager Gregory Cutrone said the county will build sidewalks in the summer of 2017. He said studies are currently being done on the road.
“We have to put in ramps; we have to take a look at connectivity. We have to look at pedestrian safety and more importantly; the drainage has to be permitted,” Cutrone said.
He asked parents to be patient. Grant money from the Florida Department of Transportation will go toward the project, but the funds won’t be available until next year.
Final design plans will be completed by next spring.
County officials plan to reach out to parents for input within the next several months.
