JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation required the city of Jacksonville to remove rainbow-colored crosswalks from its streets to prevent distractions and ensure driver and pedestrian safety.
So Action News Jax investigators decided to look into the number of crashes reported at the colorful crosswalks compared to non-colorful ones in Jacksonville’s Five Points area.
We reached out to JSO and requested the crash data from January 1, 2023 to August 29, 2025 for the crosswalks at
- Park St. and Lomax St.
- Park St. and Margaret St.
- Lomax St. and Oak St.
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JSO sent us back all of the crashes that happened on Park Street and Lomax Street.
For the entire date range we reviewed, the crosswalks on Park Street closest to Lomax Street had 22 crashes reported, according to the JSO data.
For Lomax Street, which until recently had three rainbow crosswalks, there were nine crashes.
It’s important to note that the rainbow crosswalks were added to Lomax Street in August 2024. Since then, there have been four crashes along all of Lomax St. and eleven crashes along Park St. near its intersections closest to Lomax.
“I can believe that. That makes sense,” said Chris Spohn.
Spohn has been in and out of the Five Points area for the last 30 years. He says the removal of the rainbow crosswalks for safety purposes doesn’t make sense.
“Whether you support it or not I think it’s a political stunt and I think we are no strangers to political stunts here in Florida,” said Spohn.
Back in June, FDOT released a memo which called for pavement surface art that doesn’t directly relate to road safety to be removed.
Last week, Action News Jax learned that FDOT wrote a letter to the City of Jacksonville requiring city officials to remove all road art at six intersections by Labor Day or lose state funding.
Three of those intersections were on Lomax Street in Jacksonville’s Five Points neighborhood.
“I think the rainbow colors kind of stand out a little bit more,” said Jack Bartell, who was walking by. “Even if someone is slightly distracted elsewhere, the rainbow kind of brings them back to what they should be paying attention to.”
It’s also important to remember that Park Street generally has more traffic traveling through the Five Point intersections than Lomax Street. I reached out to FDOT asking for a comment and an interview about this. I have not yet heard back.
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