Northpinellas: Bike lanes make commissioners uneasy

Adding bike lanes to newly widened roads seemed like a great idea to county planners looking for ways to make Pinellas' mean streets safer for cyclists.

The concept was added to the county's comprehensive plan for development in 1995. The county's transportation board had already endorsed the idea.

But county commissioners balked last week when presented with a drawing of a road that included new bike lanes.

The concept had seemed so safe, but what they saw in the drawing for the widening of Bryan Dairy Road scared them: Two bicycle lanes alongside six heavily traveled lanes of high-speed traffic.

"I don't know why, when we're building a six-lane highway, we would encourage individuals to bicycle," said County Commission Chairman Bob Stewart.

Commissioners are now considering removing those bike lanes from the Bryan Dairy Road widening plans as well as from plans for other roads. But bicycle enthusiasts have been lobbying for those lanes for years.

They say adding the lanes does not encourage inexperienced bicyclists to suddenly start riding down busy roads, as commissioners have worried. Instead, they insist, the lanes make it safer for cyclists who are already using those roads daily.

"I think it's a great idea. The roads we ride on now, there's a white line and the curb, and if a car comes too close to you, there's nowhere to go," said Pinellas Park bicyclist Shelly Allen. "If we had a bike lane, we could move over more and give cars more room and us more room."

The conflict between cars and bicycles in urban areas everywhere continues, with often tragic results. In Pinellas County alone, bicyclists have been involved in at least 1,651 accidents resulting in 18 deaths since 1996, according to county statistics.

Most of those accidents occurred on major roads: State Road 580, Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, East Bay/West Bay Drive, Ulmerton Road, Park Boulevard, 54th Avenue N, 66th Street and U.S. 19. None has bike lanes.

The only major county-maintained road with bike lanes is Sunset Point Road in Clearwater, the scene of 15 accidents over that time period, a pittance compared with the roads around it.

In March, the county's Planning Department studied major thoroughfares to see which, if any, could support bike lanes.

Planners found that some, such as East Bay Drive and State Road 580, had plenty of asphalt -- they just needed a little paint to designate the bike lanes. Others, such as sections of Bryan Dairy Road and Keene Road, would need extra pavement and right of way before bike lanes could become a reality.

'Nowhere to go'

But whether any of those roads will see bike lanes is in doubt. Commissioners were uncomfortable with adding the lanes to Bryan Dairy Road, now in the midst of a widening project.

And they were horrified when they learned that the Florida Department of Transportation was considering adding bike lanes to Ulmerton Road.

"If we put those bike lanes in, that's a sign of encouragement or an indication that it's safe to ride in that traffic," Stewart said. "Then when you start talking about six lanes of traffic, I just get concerned about whether that's a wise thing to do. It's just one thing we have to agonize over in this urban, dense county we're in."

Those kinds of concerns are normal, said Andy Clarke, executive director of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals in Washington. But big cities like Philadelphia and Chicago have installed bike lanes without any ill effects, he said.

"We're not seeing the massive slaughter of innocent cyclists across the country," he said. "They're right to be concerned about it. But fortunately, in other places, it has been good. Bike lanes are working, and they're working well."

Allen, of Pinellas Park, is hoping for bike lanes on Park Boulevard. It's not so bad when she rides the road before 5 a.m. on her way to a group ride through the beach communities. But on her way home after 7 a.m., traffic has picked up.

"It's pretty scary," said Allen, who last month won the Masters Mountain Bike World Championships near Montreal. "I just get so mad when we go out and ride and a car is yelling at us. Bicyclists have the same rights as drivers. We have nowhere to go. We're riding in the road like we're supposed to be. If we had a bike lane, we could get out of their way."

'We have to do something'

Frustrated drivers have charged that cyclists should stay on the sidewalk. But technically, bikes must follow the same laws as cars.

The Pinellas Trail provides some relief for recreational cyclists. But it has some limitations. A serious rider can reach speeds above 20 mph, which is a safety hazard on a trail occupied by walkers, joggers, skaters and parents with baby strollers.

Furthermore, most of the Pinellas Trail runs north and south. What happens when a cyclist wants to go in another direction?

"The Pinellas Trail is a wonderful north-south trail," said Tom Mahony, a Safety Harbor cyclist and member of the county's Bicycle Advisory Committee. "What we need are some east-west connectors, and Bryan Dairy Road could be one of them. If you're not going to stripe bike lanes, what's the alternative?"

The county as well as several cities have planned east-west trails that eventually would link to the Pinellas Trail and its soon-to-be eastern half, the Florida Power Trail. Commissioner Karen Seel said those trails may be safer alternatives than bike lanes.

"It keeps them off the streets, yet it still provides a network for bicyclists," she said.

Fresh in her mind are the results of the Mean Streets 2000 report, compiled by the Surface Transportation Policy Project in Washington. The report, released this summer, declared the Tampa Bay region the most dangerous large metro area for pedestrians in the country, based on 1997 and 1998 fatality statistics.

Would adding bike lanes make the area even worse for cyclists? What if inexperienced riders took to the busy streets?

"I think we have to look at the safety of not just the avid bicyclists who use the bicycle lanes for commuting but for the recreational bicyclists. Having one of the highest death rates among pedestrians and cyclists, I'm concerned with offering attractive opportunities that could create more deaths," Seel said. "It's not that I don't want to provide for avid bicyclists and commuters. But I don't know what the best solution is to provide that and make it safe for all users."

There is no one, perfect solution to the problem, said Clarke, of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. Most successful communities create a network of trails and bicycle lanes.

Serious cyclists will use a road even if there are no bicycle lanes, either because they have nowhere else to ride or because it is their only mode of transportation throughout the community, he said. Adding bicycle lanes keeps the drivers and the riders out of each other's way.

"It tends to discipline both the bicyclist and the motorist to stay where they should be," he said.

"Cyclists are going to use all the roads they're legally allowed to ride on. Not putting facilities in for bicyclists doesn't mean they're not going to ride there. That's putting your head in the sand," Clarke said. "Putting bike lanes in there is the right thing to do. Even on a six-lane road, having a bike lane is much better than not having any facilities whatsoever."

Commissioners plan to meet with transportation planners in the coming weeks to discuss options for bicyclists. If adding bicycle lanes to large roads is not the best solution, county officials need to find a suitable alternative, said Planning Director Brian Smith.

"You can't say, "We're not going to provide bike lanes. Problem solved.' We have to do something," said Smith, a cyclist himself. "The (County Commission) board was saying, "We don't want to be encouraging anyone.' We're talking about providing for those already out there. We need to provide some way to get them out of the traffic."

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