The shore of Hillsborough Bay has always been a public gathering place. Today, Bayshore’s balustrade is one of our region’s most iconic features and a social link between vibrant Tampa communities. Bayshore is a residential street and our most frequented city park. However, Bayshore Boulevard’s identity has become one of a fatal divided highway that pits driver against pedestrian.
The current identity of Bayshore threatens not only the lives of our residents and children but also threatens Tampa and Hillsborough County’s national prominence. The morbid reality on this street—and others in the area—directly contributes to our metro area’s rank as the ninth highest in the nation for pedestrian deaths per capita and stems from a common theme that Bayshore is dangerous by design.
Tampa City Council virtual workshop
Thurs. April 30. 9 a.m.
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Wide, uninterrupted lanes on a divided freeway set inches from unprotected bike lanes and exposed, but heavily-used, sidewalks is a recipe for disaster. There are many components that have already changed and need to continue to change including enforcement, signage, and traffic controls.
Bayshore is far from our county’s most dangerous street, but its visibility and cultural significance present a unique opportunity to spark the transformation needed in driver attitudes and public perception of roadway safety across our community.
Every pedestrian and bicyclist incident must continuously ignite a public reconsideration of the primacy of pedestrians and the consequence of courtesy and responsibility on the road. A change in driver behavior and attitude is the most important, immediate, and impactful way to prevent another death on this and every roadway.
Bayshore Boulevard has a storied history. This curving waterside roadway was created by the Works Progress Administration during President Roosevelt’s administration as a New Deal project to employ Americans during the Great Depression.
Called “the world’s longest sidewalk,” Bayshore has functioned as a linear park, attracting walkers, skaters and bicyclists from every part of the city. The challenge is that it is also a county road with a daily traffic count in normal times of over 25,000 cars. Even before the recent senseless deaths, making Bayshore safer has been a goal for our community.
"The tragedies on Bayshore and speeding throughout the city definitely show the need for a renewed look at public safety,” Bill Carlson, a Tampa City Council member told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that City Council has a workshop on Bayshore and citywide speeding that is scheduled for on April 30. “It will be a virtual meeting that will take electronic feedback. We want to get all the feedback we can. Then the transportation department and engineers will review the input and get back to us with a plan."
Forty years ago when Sandy Freedman was mayor and I served on Tampa City Council, there was a major initiative to rebuild the then-crumbling seawall which runs along the 9-mile length of the road. Freedman’s original plan was to keep the original design of road-curb-narrow, existing sidewalk.
Fortunately, a group of community activists used the community access TV station to show how much safer Bayshore could be. They proposed turning a third northbound lane into a bike lane bounded by a widened sidewalk edged by a grass strip. These folks came to City Council with their plan and convinced Council members to support it. Council then pushed the administration into increasing the project budget and installing the safety measures.
As the recognition for the need for recreation spaces has increased along with the traffic, Tampa has looked to other cities which have addressed this tension by making their parks car-free on the weekends.
As the Coronavirus decreased car traffic and increased recreational demand, this seemed a prime opportunity to demonstrate the value of closing the northbound lanes on Bayshore. Many U.S. cities, including New York, Detroit and Denver have closed major streets to cars and opened them to pedestrians and bicyclists to alleviate crowding on sidewalks. The problem is that these fresh areas have attracted too many people in search of safe places to be outside, thus making them unsafe.
Right now our top community goal is to keep people safe from the coronavirus by discouraging crowding. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is relying on her medical advisors that this single focus will save lives in Tampa.
Mayor Castor announced on WMNF that the City will be installing traffic lights at Euclid and Rome Avenues (Rome is where a bicyclist and a motorcyclist were killed onApril 4, when they collided on Bayshore.) Also, the city will work with the Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority to eliminate tolls from downtown to MacDill Air Force Base to encourage greater use of that artery for service people.
Mariella Smith, a Hillsborough County Commissioner told Creative Loafing Tampa BAy that the County needs to allow the City of Tampa to take responsibility for decisions for the County roads within its boundaries. “The County should pay for a portion of the improvements, but the City should be empowered to design the roadways.”
Alex Engelman, the founder of Take Back Tampa, told CL that, “Bayshore Blvd is currently engineered for cars; it should be designed for people.”
His group’s mission is to close the waterside lanes to vehicular traffic and create a scenic byway on the landside lanes that can alternate traffic patterns to accommodate rush-hour volumes.
Now more than ever during the coronavirus public health crisis, Bayshore Boulevard and Bayshore linear park are our areas most visible intersection of pedestrian and commuter interests. At a time of mass closures, it was Bayshore the park that remained our strongest link to our city and each other. When it is time to emerge from this defining moment together, we will gather again on Bayshore—to honor the past with vision for the future.”
If safety is our goal, then this is not our perfect time to promote the transformation of the north bound lanes. Let’s get past this health crisis, refine our plans and be prepared to build a coalition to fund the necessary changes.
Linda Saul-Sena has devoted her life to public service and advocacy in her hometown of Tampa, Florida. For 20 years, she served as a member of Tampa City Council and has been contributing to Creative Loafing Tampa since 2012. She’s also served on the boards of the Tampa Theatre, Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and Community Stepping Stones and more.
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This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2020.