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Bike lane marking rolling along well

Officials say striping is going smoothly enough that work on off-road trails is getting more attention.

By JON WILSON
Published July 12, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - The city's creation of striped bike lanes is moving rapidly, officials say, with several new ones completed and work on others scheduled to start soon.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S recently got its stripes between 18th Avenue S and the Eighth Street split, where the thoroughfare becomes one-way northbound.

Snell Isle Boulevard is high on the work schedule and should receive striping in the next month or so, said Michael Frederick, neighborhood transportation manager.

Another priority is 31st Street S between Pinellas Point and 13th Avenue N.

Meanwhile, 37th Street S is scheduled to get lanes from 13th Avenue N to 30th Avenue S, where it will tie into a trail projected as a spur off the Pinellas Trail that goes into the Clam Bayou nature preserve.

The CityTrails program, designed to make St. Petersburg more bike-and-pedestrian friendly, targets 60 percent of the city's bigger traffic arteries for lanes.

"We're approaching the goal," Frederick said.

In fact, the lane-striping is moving along well enough, Frederick said, that the planned off-road trails are getting more attention. For example, the Pinellas Trail extension downtown will have a preliminary design by September, a final design by July 2007 and a possible construction start by September 2007, depending on availability of funds.

Going eastbound on 2.1 miles of old CSX railbed, the trail will be extended to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street S. A barrier along First Avenue S will define another mile of dedicated trail, which will end at Demens Landing.

Another project, said Frederick, is the North Bay Trail, which will proceed from Fifth Avenue S along the waterfront to 30th Avenue N.

From there, it will hook into First Street N, where officials envision wider sidewalks.

The route will connect with Rio Vista in far north St. Petersburg, connecting eventually with the Friendship Trail along Gandy Boulevard.

The striped bike lanes generally have gone over well with cycling proponents, Frederick said.

"The only feedback I'm getting is: Keep them swept and keep them clean," Frederick said.

There also has been some concern along First Avenues N and S, he said.

"Motorists think they're an express in and out of town and that bikes don't belong," Frederick said. "But bikes are going to be there regardless and its safer for them to have their own lane."

There also have been reports of motorists driving in bike lanes or turning across them too soon, Frederick said.

"That's one of the problems we're working on with the police," he said.

[Last modified July 12, 2006, 07:35:38]