comments from my son

My son, who is 10 and cannot yet post comments, had the following to say about my previous blog: "fast & efficiently you should get a bike!!!!!"

biking, tourism, city

My friend Jeff, in town for the weekend, wanted to celebrate his 50th birthday Saturday night with a Rays game. Tampa Bay won in spectacular fashion, blowing a two run lead in the ninth, then coming back in the twelfth to defeat the obnoxious and annoying Boston Red Sox -- but that's another story.

On Saturday morning, Jeff, his daughter Rachel, and I rode to the Trop to pick up tickets. Taking the opportunity to show off our fine waterfront, we cruised around the fountain at the USF St. Pete campus, stopped to admire the glass blob that slithers outside the Dali, bought tickets, and pedaled a little further down the Pinellas Trail to check out the pottery center. (Rachel is taking ceramics at school and was very impressed.)

On the way back, we hooked a right at the Dome, picked up a new trail through Campbell Park, coasted downhill to the Third Street bike lane, and made it home before a mid-afternoon shower hit.

Here's the point: St. Petersburg looks great on a bike.

Lately I've been reading David Byrne's book, Bicycle Diaries, which is as much about bicycles as it is knowing the world. The globe-trotting former Talking Heads frontman makes a good case that the best way to learn a city is to pedal it. And today's NY Times Sunday Review ran a piece on Bicycle Visionary Sadik-Khan, the transportation commissioner who has doubled the number of bike lanes in the city. Sadik-Khan has drawn no amount of scorn, as the article notes, but visionaries often do.

Long story short. Sleepy St. Petersburg has a chance to put itself on the cutting edge. Much has been made about defeats to light rail in the Tampa Bay area. And the current political climate gives little reason to hope for improvement to our woeful bus system. (Welfare on wheels -- more on that later.)

But biking is cost efficient, surprisingly safe in downtown St. Petersburg, and fun.

While riding through St. Pete with Jeff and Rachel, I could not help but feel -- dare I say it? -- civic pride.

Our local government has laid terrific groundwork for creating a bike-friendly 'burg.

Let's face it. Real transportation alternatives are not coming here anytime soon.

So why not direct energies towards expanded bike lanes? It's a solution that Rick Scott and garden-variety liberals like me can agree on.

Bike Irony?

We meandered into Putnam county yesterday. As we traveled along route 21 we crossed over into Putnam county and were instantly greeted by a sign that said, "Welcome to Putnam County – a Bike-Friendly Community."

About five feet later the bike path running alongside the road ended. Abruptly. Nothing but two lanes ahead and very soft shoulders.

I would laugh but I don't think it's a joke.

How to Do Bike Paths

Today I'm in Hilton Head, getting ready to take a RoadTrek across Florida for three weeks (starting tomorrow). Aside from helping me complete my thesis for the Florida Studies program, this trip will help me undo my relatively tiny carbon footprint from last month. The thesis is another story and, if you're so inclined, you can follow my travels at my probably-always-evolving-over-the-next-21-days web site, but right now I'm thinking, of course, about bike paths.

Hilton Head is a tourist mecca but it also has some locals who, many years ago, cared deeply (I'm pretty sure they care still) about retaining a certain type of character as the island developed. When you drive on to Hilton Head today you're met with a wooded island that doesn't allow traditional signage. The sheer amount of foliage belies the anxiety-producing number of vistors who cluster around the ocean here annually. The natives (well, no, not the natives, but the locals) made sure of it, and if you're a store who needs a big sign or fancies neon, you're out of luck. Whether you're marking the location of a plantation – and don't get me started about that nomenclature – or a McDonald's, basically all your signs have to look a lot like this. No billboards, no high signs, and no flashing neon. It's a nice visual break, but there's still plenty to look at in the form of trees and landscaping that doesn't look a bit like manicured landscaping. These folks are hard core about keeping the local flora intact. Seriously, this is what one of the roundabouts has on its inside (this photograph may be of another part of the island, but trust me, it's close enough that you'll never know the difference):

The best way to see this all this is on your bike, because a smooth-paved, well-marked, broad bike path contours the entire island. And my god, it's gorgeous. Where the path crosses water (and it frequently does; this is low country), bikes bump smoothly across wooded decking on a path flanked by copper-topped posts. You can't bike for fitness on this island, because every other tenth of a mile is a new vista of cool ocean-forest-like stuff to look at.

Seriously. Except for in a very few places, the entire island's bike path looks pretty much like these photos. And there are bike racks everywhere and signage and people – even new visitors – learn pretty quickly how to navigate the island and give way to all the cyclists. I could live here without a car, easily. Well, as long as I didn't have to leave the island.

It's nice to see a community so committed to cycling. Of course, given the sheer volume of tourists, if they didn't offer throngs of bikes for rent and well-marked paths to travel, the traffic would look like a cross between Manhattan and Clearwater beach.

Our tourist communities could learn from this city.