A car passes Wicked Barley on Baymeadows Road, where a man and his child were killed May 16, 2025. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on July 23, 2025 at 5:36 pm
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A stretch of Baymeadows Road near Wicked Barley Brewing Co. — the site where a man and 1-year-old child were hit and killed May 16 — could get a crosswalk with flashing lights.
The Florida Department of Transportation this week recommended the crosswalk after studying traffic on the road and pedestrian activity.
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Mitchell Patch, a math teacher at Bayview Elementary, and his child were hit while crossing the five lanes of traffic after a party at Wicked Barley.
FDOT figures show that more than 19,000 vehicles a day travel that part of Baymeadows Road just east of San Jose Boulevard. Although Wicked Barley has a parking lot, overflow crowds often park in the Goodby’s Creek Executive Park across the busy road.
The posted speed limit is 45 mph, with sidewalks on both sides, plus 4-foot paved shoulders marked as bike lanes. The nearest marked pedestrian crosswalks are about 1,940 feet to the west at the traffic light at San Jose Boulevard and 3,300 feet to the east at the Craven Road intersection signal.
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The study concludes that the Wicked Barley and Goodbys Creek Executive Park parking lots generate the most pedestrians. A greater number of pedestrians crossed immediately at Goodbys Executive Drive near the path leading from Wicked Barley than they did east of the parking entrance intersection, the study found.
“As such, a midblock crossing installed at the intersection would likely best meet the pedestrian crossing needs,” the study concludes. A median is recommended as a “pedestrian refuge island” because the distance to cross Baymeadows is about 66 feet. An island is recommended for distances over 60 feet.
The state now must work out which of two possible crosswalk designs would be best and how much it will cost.
City Council member Joe Carlucci has been pushing the city and state to improve safety on that section of Baymeadows Road since Patch and his son died.
“I am going to remain engaged with FDOT, state Legislators and the Mayor’s Office to make sure the city does everything we can to expedite the process,” Carlucci said in a statement Wednesday. “For now, the main takeaway is that we have taken the first big step in making this area safer for pedestrians. There are more steps to take — but I want to reassure my constituents that these steps will be taken with urgency.”
Two FDOT engineers did an on-site review of the roadway from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 30 to see the pedestrian activity and how far someone could see down the road. There is a slight hump on a bridge over Goodby’s Lake to the west, but the study showed traffic volumes were “generally light enough to create gaps in traffic to allow pedestrians to cross … in one stage without having to wait for long periods of time.”
The engineers also checked on how many pedestrians and bicycles crossed Baymeadows Road at the site on May 22, 23 and 24, a Saturday. There were three pedestrians between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. on that Saturday, but a high of 59 the day before.
Funding for the crosswalk depends on the city prioritizing the project through the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, the independent regional transportation planning agency for Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
