NORTH BETHANY, Del. - Traffic sped down Delaware Route 1 in North Bethany Wednesday afternoon - just a few feet from bicyclists.
The three miles of Route 1 in the community carry some of the fastest traffic on the coast - and that's got neighbors worried.
"Almost anyone who lives in North Bethany has a horror story about almost getting hit," said Seth Hamed of the Coalition for a Safer North Bethany, which is behind a push for safety changes to the highway.
North Bethany along with much of Delaware's coast has seen a boom in residents and visitors. Tens of thousands cross Route 1 each year in North Bethany to get to the beach, or to Fresh Pond State Park. The highway has signage indicating that traffic must yield to pedestrians and share the road with cyclists, but there are almost no crosswalks.
And when a vehicle needs to turn off the highway, or yield to a pedestrian, the high speed of the traffic increases the risk of rear-end collisions.
Safety concerns in other communities along Delaware's Atlantic coast have been addressed through lower speed limits, highway design changes, and more aggressive traffic enforcement, among other solutions. Some communities have speed limits on Route 1 as low as 25 miles per hour.
However, communities such as Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, and South Bethany are all incorporated communities with local governments that have the authority to pursue such safety solutions
That's not the case in North Bethany, where the speed limit on Route 1 is 55 miles per hour.
"There's so many things you can do to this road to let the drivers know with signage that tells you you're going sixty five miles and hour like that guy right there," Hamed remarked as he pointed to a red sedan traveling down Route 1.
The issue is that North Bethany is an unincorporated community, meaning it has no town government and therefore no police force nor authority to change traffic regulations. So the Coalition for a Safer North Bethany along with business and residential neighbors are looking for help from the State to bring safety improvements to Route 1.
Neighbors are tired of the frequent close calls, and sometimes fatal accidents on their stretch of the highway.
"People have died here, people have almost been hit here, and if we don't do something about it, it's another accident waiting to happen."
Among possible solutions such as speed limits and more aggressive enforcement, Chris Bod of Bicycle Connection in Bethany Beach sees a possible solution away from the highway.
"There's great areas to ride inland, and that would actually get some volume off of Route 1 and allow more room for pedestrians, people getting back and forth to the beach," Bond said.
Hamed said that safety must be paramount, and that lowering the speed limit won't slow traffic down significantly.
"The difference between going fifty five miles an hour and forty five miles an hour is less than a minute. Going from fifty five to thirty five it's a couple minutes. So what's a life worth? An extra minute of drive time?," Hamed asked.