Originally Posted by
buzzman
Florida perplexes me.
If any state could have been a cycling paradise it's Florida. Beaches, tons of people on vacation, lots of sunshine and for those who don't like changes in elevation- flat as a pancake.
But the road designs are dreadful. Fast powerful cars and lots of trucks hauling goods and produce on narrow straight stretches at high speed.
The regular poster from Florida who seems to deal well with it is CommuterRun. I think he hauls a boat trailer behind his bike at times and seems to negotiate the Floriday highways without much incidence.
I've ridden a lot in the West Palm Beach/Fort Peirce/Vero Beach areas and survived it fine but was challenged by adjusting to the traffic.
Doesn't Florida have a particular high rate of bicyclist deaths?
Yes, the highest in the nation most years, and Key West is the most dangerous place in the state. That's likely due to drinking to a large degree. I live in FL and the roads are horrible. I'm not asking for bike lanes everywhere, but sometimes a shoulder would be nice. There's a weird law here that states a road can have a sidewalk or a shoulder, but not both. When roads have sidewalks they have curbs, so it's up on the sidewalk if you want to ride there, unless you want to rub shoulders with 60mph traffic. Even worse, the law doesn't state that there has to be a sidewalk on both sides. A major road in my county was recently made into divided 4 lane---and the sidewalk is only on one side, with a curb on the other. Therefore it's unrideable. Forgetting bicycles, what happens when a motorist breaks down? They can't get out of the lane, so they block it. Somebody's going to die.