Is Tampa Bay bicycle friendly?
 

I might be in Tampa Bay for 4-5 days in Jan. and was wondering if it's an easy city to ride in. Thinking about bringing a bike. No road/club rides, just riding around checking out the sites and what not. Also, what's the public transportation like there? Thanks.

Well, I didn't start cycling until I got up to Gainesville so between those two comparisons, I can say South Tampa isn't that great. Tight roads, reckless old people driving, reckless kids driving, etc.

However, they are working on it. I think there is or was an ongoing project to create a really long MUP connection like almost two centuries out and back from South Tampa over to St. Pete and then up to about halfway to Gainesville, but I'm not sure how that went down. And I also heard they are doing construction widening roads in South Tampa

Biking in South Tampa varies; bike lanes often disappear and on many thoroughfares there are none at all. See: http://www.tampabaycycle.com/maps.htm It has streets color coded for the degree of biking safety. On the other hand there is the Pinellas Trail, a dedicated bike and pedestrian route, that goes for 34 miles from St Petersburg to Tarpon Springs. It is a great trail to ride and includes 7 overpasses to give riders some experience in lower gears. There's much to see including beautiful Wall Springs Park north of Dunedin. There is a home for retired primates with cages of grey haired monkeys just off of the trail near Tarpon Springs. There are quite a few 4 way stops as the trail crosses roadways but I have found drivers to be remarkably courteous usually waiting for me to pedal through. Immediately adjacent to the trail, on Main Street, across from the old train station in Dunedin there's a very good restaurant, the name of which escapes me. By all means, bring the bike, I think you'll find this trail worth the trouble. But I'm sorry, I do not know much about public transportation here.

I live on Davis Islands and regularly ride along Bayshore, downtown TPA, and the "infamous" streets around Davis Islands and South Tampa. Never had a problem with so-called reckless drivers, but beware of the snowbirds from up north.

I used to cycle on the Friendship Trail (old westbound section of the Gandy Bridge) until they closed it a few weeks back. In addition to the Pinellas Trail, there's the East-West trail also in Penniless county, Suncoast Parkway, Flatwoods Wilderness Park, and Upper Tampa Bay Trail in Hicks-borrow county.

Hopefully the weather's good, nice and sunny and not too breezy. Days like that may happen.

The only store I know that rents bike is Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium. Haven't asked at the several other LBSs, I'm sure many more do rent.

Public transportation... haven't used it, heard it's average at best. But many buses do have the bike carriers in the front. You're better off with a car around here.

Doesn't that connect to the SunCoast Trail or something and then to something else?

Or did the project not pan out?

Thanks for the info, all. The Pinellas Trail looks like it would be a good time, it's on google maps and I sort of virtually rode it. :)

As far as wind, I live on the coast here in NC, I deal with it all the time. :twitchy::lol:

Come over to Florida Bicycle Sports in St Petersburg!

We have a fleet of rental road bikes and there is a group ride every day (literally, every day- and it meets just a couple of miles from our store).

The trail is within riding distance from us, too.

www.floridabicyclesports.com

Eric, note that you have gotten several contradictory answers here, and they are all correct! The Tampa Bay area is actually many cities, and their individual riding environments vary from very cycling friendly to "Death Sport 2000". If you tell us where you'll be staying, the feedback could be more specific.

It's not yet panned out to reality. The connection can be made on streets, but the majority of that would be on roads with very little on the line of a sholder. Good side, it is still on the plans of things to be done.

Public transportation is spotty and average. Most busses I see do have bike racks on them, but I've not used them myself. Personally havn't ran into many bad car drivers in the are, but constanly hear of horror stories from others. Just found that riding responsibliy and exercising some caution, is safest.
Another place to check for rides in and around here is on mapmyride.com and search for tampa, clearwater, dunedin or which ever local town you'll be at, a great deal of them have rides assoicated to them. Shout out in a PM if you want to go on a ride.

I've ridden all over Tampa recently. Today I went from my home in Lutz, out to my Aunt's place in Thonotassa, down to downtown, and back home via a round-a-bout scenic route through the neighborhoods along the river without a problem. You'll occasionally get jerks that can't seem to figure out how to civilly pass a cyclist but they're in the minority. I wouldn't want to ride during a really busy time of day and there are a few areas of town I don't mind riding through but would hate to get a flat in. If you don't mind putting in the miles there's really few places you can't ride to but there are tricks and roads to avoid.
Public transit is pretty good in Tampa proper but gets really spotty the further north or east you get. If you have a nice bike and plan to use the bike carriers on the buses, lock a wheel to the frame before you load it on to the carrier to make it difficult for some to do a snatch and ride. I once had someone try and grab my beater from the rack (the drivers aren't likely to remember who put it there or even care) but they dropped it and ran when they found the wheel wouldn't turn (it also had a big tear in the sidewall which is why I was on the bus in the first place). They broke a spoke nipple trying to take off with the lock through the wheel but at least I didn't lose the whole bike.

It is and it isn't...
 

...but there are some nice trails in the area and the county has attempted to put together resources to help bicyclists understand what roadways are suitable for bicycling. See the following:

http://www.hillsboroughmpo.org/pubma..._Map_Front.pdf

http://www.hillsboroughmpo.org/pubma...y_Map_Back.pdf

Yeah that map are a decent recommendation but hardly accurate. They mark as bike-friendly a couple of roads that are crazy and show un-friendly for some of my favorite route. As a general rule- East-West roads are mostly ok. North-South you're usually on your own with a few exceptions.

Agree, they do make some odd recommendations, skipping some of my favorite routes and showing some I won't ride as recommended routes. On top of that, those maps also only show Hillsborough County (Tampa) and not Pinellas County (St Petersburg)
http://www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd/default.htm is just the Pinellas Trail
http://www.pinellascounty.org/PDF/gr...s_brochure.pdf is for the rest of the county

Side note: due infrastructure failure, the Gandy Bridge or Friendship Trail between Hillsborough and Pinellas (southern most bridge across the bay) is closed until repairs can be made.