Residents express concerns over pedestrian safety along Dedeaux Road

GULFPORT, Miss. (WXXV)-Pedestrian safety is a big topic right now among residents of one Gulfport neighborhood.

Dedeaux Road is one of the most heavily traveled roadways in Gulfport’s Orange Grove neighborhood. The road connects residents to Highway 49 and is in a heavily residential area.

While the stretch of Dedeaux from 49 to Dede Road is four lanes wide, a significant stretch is still just two lanes as you head towards Highway 605.

Nearby neighborhoods are lower income, with some housing classified as section 8. We sat down with one family on the eastern end of Dedeaux who relies on public transportation to not only operate in their daily lives, but to get their disabled son to his appointments.

Mother, Elizabeth, says that just getting their son to the bus stop from their nearby apartment is a struggle, and they’re not the only ones.

“It kinda just makes me feel hopeless, like there is nothing I can do about it,” said Elizabeth Jones. “There’s no lighting. It doesn’t feel dangerous, but it doesn’t feel safe either. Any time to cross the street… it’s so busy, you have to wait until someone is nice and they want to let you across. I feel bad , because we’re lucky that Dax can get up and walk out of his transport chair. But if you can’t walk… a lot of people rely on public transportation when they can not walk, and they do not have to have someone else with them. I just do not know how they’re gonna do it if they can’t get up out of their chair like he can. He’s just lucky that he can do that. But what are people doing to the disabled people that use public transportation? That’s what it’s there for and they can’t even get to it. So, the people up here, they either get to stay at home or they try their luck, and it’s not fair.”

As WXXV ‘s Megan Fayard drove down Dedeaux Road to get a look at the bus stops, she saw two men, one with a cane, crossing the street during a break in traffic, to get to the nearby grocery store and CTA stop.

“It’s always someone who’s disabled that’s walking on Dedeaux, or it’s a young kid with a bike. It either people traveling with bikes, or its people with canes. There’s always someone in a wheelchair, you can see them trying to get over all the gravel and stuff,” said Jones.

Beth says she is considering moving once her lease is up, due to the constant struggle and fear of putting her son in danger.

“For now, we almost might fall into a ditch. My mom fell into a ditch because the wheelchair puts too much weight,” said Dax Peek, Elizabeth Jones’ son.

“Oh, yeah, he’s absolutely put in danger. That’s why we don’t even leave, because I don’t wanna be responsible for putting him in danger just because we want to go have some fun somewhere,” Jones said.

A disabled veteran Megan spoke with who also lives nearby says he hopes there is change.

“They need to put in a sidewalk and some street lights. You get to a certain area and there’s no more sidewalk, and it’s just ‘good luck.’ And then after a certain area there is no more ditch to walk in. You either walk on the road or you’re walking in somebody’s yard,” said Jeremy Pollard. “It makes you kinda feel like you’re trapped in your house. You don’t really want to go anywhere when you can’t cross the street. It sucks. It does.”

WXXV did reach out to the City of Gulport for their response to the community’s concerns. They would not meet in person, but they did provide this written statement.

“The City of Gulfport is committed to transforming Dedeaux Road into a modern, multimodal corridor that enhances safety, connectivity, and quality of life for residents and visitors.

Upon completion, Dedeaux Road will feature a four-lane boulevard with raised medians throughout the corridor, decorative streetlights, and mast arm traffic signals at major intersections. Both eastbound and westbound directions will include dedicated bike lanes and sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.

The next phase of the Dedeaux Road project will focus on the eastern end of the corridor and is currently funded. The middle section of the corridor presents property acquisition challenges, and the City is actively pursuing funding through multiple sources and grant opportunities to complete this future phase.

The portion of Dedeaux Road from Three Rivers Road to Dede Road, completed in 2020, serves as a model for all future improvements along the corridor.

Residents can track the progress of this project along with other infrastructure projects by visiting the Gulfport Vision transparency dashboard by visiting the city’s website.”