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There are no sidewalks here. The few streetlights are dull blubs or timed for later sunsets. The side road is a glorified driveway, bordered by an apron of shifting dirt and fencing that offers no refuge from the traffic backing up to turn onto East Hillsborough Avenue.
.jpg) In the dark, 43rd Street is only lit by break lights. A memorial is to the left of the fence post.
This was what 27-year old Monica Alvarez, her daughter Imani Golden and her unborn son encountered on November 16. As they crossed N. 43rd Street at East Hillsborough Avenue, Alvarez and her children were hit by a car. Alvarez died at the scene, her son died shortly after an emergency Caesarean section, and Imani was seriously injured. Alvarez’s friend and her child were also injured.
The Tampa City Council has taken an active interest in this tragedy by challenging city officials to find a way to build sidewalks on the narrow entrance to N. 43rd Street. But if they want to have a real response to the death of Alvarez and her son, they can respond to the eight deaths in the last eight years on a two mile stretch of East Hillsborough Avenue.
According to Tampa Police Department data, the two miles of East Hillsborough Avenue between N. 22nd Street and N. 50th Street contains two of the most dangerous intersections in Tampa; N. 22nd Street and N. 40th Street. Between 2006 and 2010, these were the ninth and fifth top crash intersections in the City of Tampa. (The entire length of Hillsborough Avenue has the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th top crash intersections in the city limits.)
Along this two mile stretch of East Hillsborough Avenue, four people were killed between 2003 and 2009 in pedestrian related incidents. (See map here.) In 2010 and 2011, another four people have been killed. On October 5 of this year, 15-year old Middleton High School student Shenika Davis was killed crossing East Hillsborough Avenue. In Davis’ case, she was attempting to cross at a railroad crossing before sunrise. The railroad travels directly behind Middleton.
 A sidewalk ends in the middle of 22nd Street, across from Middleton High School.
Driving through and walking around the neighborhoods surrounding East Hillsborough Avenue is an example of roads built for cars, not people. East Hillsborough Avenue is a six-lane highway, with no bike lanes, no shoulders and few medians. HART bus stops compete with utility poles on narrow sidewalks. While N. 43rd Street is getting attention for sidewalk construction, many of the streets in the area were lacking sidewalks too. Around Middleton High School, sidewalks end in the middle of a block.
Lighting is another issue. Huge stretches of East Hillsborough Avenue and side streets are poorly lit. On a recent evening, it was painfully obvious why Alvarez and her son were killed: from a distance of about 30 feet, the memorial left for Alvarez and her son disappears in the darkness. It would have been impossible for the driver who hit her to stop in time.
To be sure, pedestrians in this area deserve a share of the blame for these deaths. In two trips, once in the evening and once on a Saturday afternoon, we saw dozens of people crossing in the middle of the block. In one instance, a milk delivery truck came to a full stop in the left lane of westbound Hillsborough to allow an older couple to cross into the median. This is incredibly dangerous, but it isn’t much worse than the alternatives.
The intersection of 22nd Street and East Hillsborough Avenue is an example of a lack of consideration for pedestrians. 22nd Street is home to Middleton High School and shopping centers. But unlike the nearest stoplights at 34th Street and 30th Street, there is a permissive left-turn signal from westbound Hillsborough onto southbound 22nd Street. This puts pedestrians at-risk, even if they have the walk signal. A driver making the left turn is more worried about getting through a gap in traffic, not if a pedestrian is crossing. Further down Hillsborough, 40th Street has the necessary signals, but it is a dash across eight lanes.
The Tampa City Council had six chances to respond to the dangerous design of East Hillsborough Avenue before Alvarez’s death. They will get credit if N. 43rd Street is improved, but it will take more than completing one sidewalk to deserve that credit. It will take a complete rebuilding of East Hillsborough Avenue and the surrounding neighborhoods to truly respond to these tragedies.
(If you’re thinking, “That’s expensive, how are you going to pay for all that,” we understand. That is why many of these projects were included in the East Tampa project list for the failed 2010 transportation referendum.)
 Memorial for Monica Alvarez and her son.
Any action Tampa takes has ramifications around the region. For as bad as East Hillsborough Avenue is, there are dangerous roads across the region. Gulf-to-Bay in Clearwater, US 41 in Bradenton and Sarasota (as demonstrated by the hit-and-run death of a 5-year old on Monday), Memorial Blvd. in Lakeland, and almost the entirety of US 19 between St. Petersburg and Citrus County, are also hazardous for pedestrians. Tampa can set a model of working with county, state and federal officials to create a safe environment for pedestrians.
Responding with a few blocks of concrete to finish a sidewalk doesn’t fix the problem. There needs to be better pedestrian facilities, better traffic controls and an awareness that East Hillsborough Avenue must serve the people in the neighborhood. Right now, with its numerous business driveways and median turn lanes, East Hillsborough Avenue is just a road to connect Interstate 275 to Interstate 4. It is not built for a population that walks to nearby stores, schools and uses public transit.
The Tampa City Council is acting after eight people have died, not just two. The only proper way to address the tragedies of East Hillsborough Avenue is to act in a manner in which honors all of those lives lost.
For additional pictures of East Hillsborough Avenue, visit our Facebook page.
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