‘We’re into the ridiculous now’ – crosswalk controversy arrives in Seminole County

It’s Wednesday morning, and Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek is doing an experiment to see if people stop for pedestrians where the Cross Seminole Trail meets State Road 434. Sladek hits the button to activate flashing yellow lights and crosses into the crosswalk. 

As she crosses State Road 434 near Oviedo’s downtown, a silver car doesn’t wait for her. 

“When a pedestrian has set foot into the crosswalk, no cars are supposed to come into the crosswalk,” Sladek said. “But people just don’t pay attention.”

Less than a week ago, the crosswalk Sladek was walking across was a vibrant green-and-white pattern. But over the weekend, it was repainted back to black-and-white – one of more than a dozen crossings throughout Seminole County that have been repainted in the last week. 

“This seems like an incredible waste of time and resources, and I don’t know how to fix it,” Sladek said with a laugh.

“We’re going to have to pay to redo everything all over again, if we can get the policy changed top-down. But as for Oviedo, we are just a little city, and we don’t have the bandwidth to go fight Washington, D.C. or Tallahassee on our own.” – Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek

The state has been embroiled in a controversy in recent weeks after painting over a rainbow crosswalk in front of Pulse, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Orlando, where 49 patrons were shot to death in 2016. The crosswalk had come to symbolize resilience in the gay community in the aftermath of the shooting. Since being repainted to black and white by FDOT, protesters have been arrested for re-rainbowing the crosswalk with chalk and paint. 

In other areas across the state, “rainbow pride” crosswalks, Black Lives Matter crosswalks and even a checkered flag pattern at Daytona International Speedway have been repainted black and white. Also repainted have been some bright green crosswalks, which were given that color to make them more visible to motorists and increase pedestrian safety.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said roads must remain “clean” in Florida. People don’t have a first amendment right to paint a crosswalk, he said. 

“But when you have a state crosswalk or a state road, the law in the state of Florida is now that there are no markings or they are not going to be used for those purposes,” DeSantis said at a press conference earlier this week.

Seminole County originally got a list of 15 crosswalks from the Florida Department of Transportation that had to be repainted by Sept. 4 or risk losing state funding. Here are the areas identified as “non-compliant” Seminole County crosswalks, according to a letter sent to the county.

You can view before-and-after pictures of the crosswalks below. 

“We didn’t mess around and got most of them done that weekend,” said Chris Patton, a spokesman for Seminole County. “As of this past weekend, we think we’ve hit the mark and remediated all the crosswalks. We’re hoping to have this wrapped up as soon as possible.”

Seminole County Commission Chairman Jay Zembower went further, saying the letter from the state threatened funding. He said residents should know that the county was being forced to pay to repaint the crosswalks, even though the county was permitted by the state to paint them green to begin with. 

He said the county should have been “grandfathered” in. 

“That’s what I call the gun-to-the-head letter; do it, or we’re going to do it for you and send you the bill.” – Seminole County Commission Chairman Jay Zembower at a recent county meeting

The controversy is also coming to Winter Springs. Matt Reeser, city spokesman, said Winter Springs is currently evaluating whether some of the faux brick paintings in the crosswalks could violate the new state rules.

“We haven’t heard anything from (the Florida Department of Transportation) yet about any crosswalks, but we’ve (been) proactively going across the city to see if any areas don’t meet state code and will address them as they come up,” Reeser said. 

Report: Brightly colored crosswalks shown to increase safety

In previous years, the greater Orlando area – which includes Seminole County –  has ranked as one of the deadliest metro areas in the country for pedestrians. 

Since those rankings came out, Central Florida officials have come together with a plan to lower pedestrian deaths, and Orlando’s ranking has come down. Lara Bouck, manager of project development with MetroPlan Orlando, said painting crosswalks has been part of that plan. 

She said brighter crosswalks also get pedestrians to better follow crossing rules. 

“They’re more likely to stop,” Bouck said. “And really the data shows pedestrians are more likely to follow the instructions at those crosswalks as well.”

An analysis of traffic data by the Orlando Sentinel also found the artistic crosswalks increased safety. Winter Springs City Commissioner Sarah Baker called the repaintings a “political stunt” that goes against studies showing it’s safer for pedestrians. 

“I think the entire thing is silly and a real step backwards for our community,” Baker said. 

For Sladek, the Pulse memorial should fall into a different category altogether. 

“That’s a memorial,” Sladek said. “That’s not a political statement, that’s the site of where something awful happened, and the LGBTQ community was impacted like that. To me, it’s not a political statement. It is so intrinsically tied to what happened there that that seems like a separate thing.”

Check here to contact the Florida Department of Transportation. Seminole County Commissioners plan to keep track of the expenses related to repainting the crosswalks. 

“Yes, this is a waste of taxpayer money, so when it’s our fault, we need to own it,” said Seminole County Commissioner Amy Lockhart. “But when it’s somebody else’s burden that we’re bearing, I have no problem pointing that out either. And this is – we’re into the ridiculous now.”