The DGI Files: Bicycling advocates get transit board hearing on using Crosstown
February 23, 2009 at 9:33 am by Wayne GarciaDGI = Damned Good Ideas.
And that is exactly what Alan Snel, a cycling advocate and blogger, have put before the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority.
From this morning’s St. Petersburg Times:
The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority Board will hear a staff report this afternoon on the feasibility of closing the upper tier of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway to cars on Sundays so bicyclists can use it.
The proposal, brought up by a coalition of Tampa Bay area bicycle stores and bicyclists at last month’s board meeting, asked officials to look into the idea of closing the elevated lanes on one or a few Sundays a month for two to three hours in the morning. The closure would allow bikers to ride the upper deck, typically used for commutes in heavy traffic during the week.
“Hopefully, they (board members) will understand the minimal impact this would have on tolls,” said Alan Snel, director of the bike coalition. “Our area lost the Friendship Trail Bridge and we are very tentative about using roads. I think bicyclists would really embrace this.”
The authority board will hear the bikeway staff report at 3 p.m. at its 1104 Twiggs St. offices in downtown Tampa.
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I do not like this idea at all.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Why?
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Turns out the report got all lawyered up, as the Times reported this afternoon:
The effort to open the elevated lanes of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway to bicyclists hit a barricade today. A barricade of about $130,000.
That’s an estimate of the costs to equip the route for bicyclists, said Joseph Waggoner, executive director of the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority Board.
The biggest expense would be rental and set-up fees for temporary barriers on the 8.56-mile route, Waggoner reported at a board meeting. Current barriers are 32 inches high. The bicycle railings needed to buy insurance must be 54 inches.