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Residents press city to slow traffic on Floral Avenue; IURA hearing hears petition and engineering proposal
Summary
Residents urged Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency to fund raised crosswalks and speed reductions on Floral Avenue, citing crashes, near-misses and petitions. City staff proposed raising three crosswalks to slow traffic and improve connections to the waterfront trail; estimated construction about $90,000 plus community engagement.
Residents and city staff on Thursday foregrounded safety on Floral Avenue during the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency’s first public hearing on proposed 2026 HUD-funded projects.
At the hearing, multiple neighborhood residents described repeated dangerous incidents on Floral Avenue, including a near-fatal bike collision. Siobhan Hull, the city’s sustainability planner, proposed raising three existing crosswalks along Floral Avenue and a small community-engagement study to measure effectiveness. Hull said the measure would physically slow traffic at key crossing points and help people walking and biking reach the waterfront trail and nearby West Hill neighborhood.
Why it matters: County crash-data and local petitioning prompted the effort. Hull cited Tompkins County analysis showing Floral Avenue had the highest crash severity index in the city for 2018–2022 and said a 2022 petition collected 446 signatures. HUD block-level data noted the corridor serves a largely low- and moderate-income population; Hull said the census block containing Floral Avenue is 89% LMI.
Residents detailed specific harms and fixes. Lisa Straer recounted being clipped and spun to a curb while turning into her driveway and urged lowered posted speeds (she recommended 20 mph), a fourth raised crossing where granite curbing begins and curb-speed measures where shoulders are absent. Longtime resident Kilda McGherk said she has advocated for a Floral Avenue fix for 18 years and described trucks and drivers using the street as an unsafe shortcut.
City engineering and planning considerations: Hull recommended raising all three crosswalks near Elm Street and at the waterfront-trail connections to slow vehicles over a longer stretch rather than at a single intersection. She described a construction cost estimate of about $30,000 per raised crosswalk (roughly $90,000 total) plus $9,000 for community engagement and follow-up evaluation by Bike Walk Tompkins. She noted coordination with the town of Ithaca and Tompkins County would be required and that Floral Avenue is not currently on the city’s imminent repaving schedule, so timing and coordination with repaving will be part of the design process.
Committee questions and concerns: Reviewers asked about alternatives such as rectangular rapid-flashing beacons (RFBs); staff said flashing beacons can be ignored and cost roughly $30,000 per pair, and that raised crosswalks are harder for drivers to ignore because they require a physical speed reduction. The committee also asked about pavement-marking maintenance; staff said ongoing repainting and inclusion in routine maintenance contracts would be pursued to preserve visibility.
Next steps: The proposal was presented as part of the IURA funding round and will be considered alongside other applications. The board received written public comments supporting the Floral Avenue project; final funding decisions will occur at a later IURA meeting after packet review and deliberation.
