BOCA RATON: May 29 2025 – It’s every parent-of-a-teenager’s worst nightmare. At 3:29pm on May 15 2025, a Boca Raton High School freshmen was commuting home by e-bike using the residential back roads for safety over speed. Inevitably, crossing one of Boca’s main roads was required; in this case, NW 12th Avenue right in front of Boca Middle. As it was related to BocaFirst by the student’s father, the teen was crossing NW 12th Ave in the north crosswalk (having waited for the pedestrian crossing signal) when a car traveling west on NW 8th St made a right turn on red striking the cyclist. Dazed and knocked to the asphalt, the student says that the driver stopped, checked the teen was “ok” and then left the scene of the e-bike crash. The teen suffered bruises and scrapes but the expensive e-bike was ruined. And as luck would have it, the teen’s phone battery had died leaving no way to contact family. Nobody stopped to help – every parent’s nightmare.
This was situation where someone trying to get from point A to point B in something other than a car. It was a family reducing cars-on-the-road in one of Boca’s congested school corridor by enabling their 16 year old High School freshman to commute via e-bike. This was a skilled cyclist familiar with the intersection from years attending Boca Middle who took the most conservative route through the Boca Middle School intersection and was hit by a Boca motorist. As shown below, this was not just bad driving, but very much “Bike UNFRIENDLY” city infrastructure as well. We need a better bike friendly Boca.
Traffic Cameras Didn’t Record the e-bike Crash at Boca Middle
When the father reported the crash to police, they inspected the injuries and damage. A report was filed, but without a witness, Boca PD said there’s little they can do; the cameras at the intersection do not record traffic. They only control traffic signals based on car traffic.
The driver’s failure to see crosswalk traffic is the direct result of the high approach and turn speed afforded by designing with paint; not physics.
Fortunately, a nearby home security camera (above) caught the crash from a distance. If you were in the vicinity on Thursday May 15 at 3:29pm and have information that may help the police investigation, please consider calling the Boca Raton Police tip-line at 800-458-TIPS and report it.
This is a Key Intersection for Mobility in the Area
The segment of NW 8th St that services Boca Middle terminates at its West end at Meadows Park Pool. This keeps traffic along this section low and slow. However, there is a pedestrian/bike path that continues West for pedestrian and mobility users. It goes past Meadows Pool, over a drainage canal and connects to the residential areas West of Boca Middle and on to Boca Raton High.
It is a well known route for many on foot and bike for commuting to both Boca High and Boca Middle. It is especially good for Boca High commuters wanting to avoid the high traffic stress of Glades Road and get to points East, South and in this case, North via the El Rio Trail. As such, the Boca Raton Citizen Pedestrian and Bike Advisory board classified the entirety of NW 8 St from Boca Middle to the library as one of several priority “Safe Routes to School“. In spite of being renovated in 2011, the current configuration of this road lacks any bike infrastructure. Cyclists and e-scooters must ride in traffic or mix it up with pedestrians on the 6′ sidewalk; sometimes going counterflow. In this case, the cyclist chose the safest route using the sidewalk on the North side.
NW 12th Avenue should be a safer design. But don’t hold your breath.
The intersection at NW 12th Ave and NW 8th St is the gateway for all Boca Middle School’s vehicular and non-vehicular traffic. ALL OF IT. In spite of it being surrounded on four sides by residential zones, Boca Middle does not enjoy a very high rate of participation when it comes to commuting to school by bike.
Like the City Campus, the city has let this intersection deteriorate. Safety during drop-off and pick-up times for Boca Middle are outsourced to the Palm Beach School District who uses crossing guards who put their body and whistles in harms way each day. But this layer of safety is only in effect at the school’s drop-off and pick-up hours. All the other times, such as when Boca High lets out, pedestrians and cyclists are on their own.
Several interesting things emerge from the comparison of satellite footage of the crash site between 2011 and 2025:
- The North crosswalk on 12th is completely worn in the northbound lane but since the South crosswalk of the same lanes are NOT AS WORN, the additional wear must come from cars turning north from 8th St (both Eastbound and Westbound).
- The paint marking the recommended turn radius for turning North onto 12th from 8th is worn from motorists cutting the corner.
- The dashed line internal turn and bike lane markings are gone.
- The right turn lane of the South crosswalk on 12th Ave is completely worn from cars turning right onto NW 8th St.
A curb and tight turn radius will make motorists go slower with more time to react to traffic and crosswalk users. Paint does not do this. But no design can make a driver look both ways. That’s on motorists.
Physics prevent crashes. Paint does not.
In the 15 minutes I hung out to observe:
- Three high schoolers rode through going East on 8th St (one e-bike and two e-scooters).
- Two cars on NW 12th TOTALLY ran the red light (when the cross street light was green).
- Cars turning right onto Northbound 12th Ave mostly don’t actually stop and routinely cut the corner
Relevant to this crash is the intersection’s car centric design. As shown in the video below, the steady parade of cars turning North on 12th from 8th when their light is red, shows motorists don’t stop, cut the corner turning right and sometimes go so fast they can’t make the turn onto 12th in the right lane. Lacking a curb with a tight turn radius to slow down drivers, they approach the intersection, look South for northbound traffic on 12th and turn right all without stopping, slowing and in the case of the crash cited previously, sometimes fail to look right for crosswalk users. The driver failure to see crosswalk traffic is the direct result of the high approach and turn speed afforded by designing with paint; not physics.
Painted markings are helpful but do not prevent crashes. This Boca Middle intersection design allows high approach and turn speeds. Curbs with tight radius are one of four principles of safe intersection design recommended by NACTO to address those dangerous motorist behaviors.
Of the four corners at NW 12th Ave and 8th St, only the Southwest corner implements this. That corner has a small radius curve and concrete curb with bollards to guide cars around a tight radius corner thus preventing them cutting the corner. The other corners do not have this in spite of there being space to do so.
A curb will make drivers go slower with more time to react to traffic and observe crosswalk users. But no design can force a driver to look both ways. That’s on motorists.
Boca’s Lip Service to Safe Intersection Design and Vision Zero
The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), of which Boca Raton is a member, defines four related principles of intersection design for safe crossings by non-motorist road users:
- Change underlying assumptions about how intersections must operate
- Give people biking and walking clear priority over turning vehicles
- Reduce the approach speed and turn speed of motor vehicles
- Make people walking, biking and driving mutually visible
I spent considerable time in the intersection in both morning and afternoon to observe how it works. The design is old school car centric. In my opinion, there’s space to make the intersection safer without affecting the ability for emergency vehicles to make the turn or the ability to move cars. But you have to WANT to make it safer. Unfortunately, as detailed in the article “Black Eye for Boca“, of this writing, Boca Raton’s Municipal Services Department no longer has a Director of Mobility to focus on Boca’s ad-hoc and dangerous infrastructure. By all measures, that mission, along with Vision Zero is returning to being the responsibility of a portion of a traffic engineer. That’s how you spell L-I-P S-E-R-V-I-C-E.
