After a second pedestrian death on Bayshore Boulevard in less than five months, local advocacy group Walk Bike Tampa is calling for change amid the city’s safer-at-home order.
On April 4, 50-year-old bicyclist Hal Flowers died after being hit by a speeding motorcycle while crossing Bayshore—the motorcyclist also died, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
On the same day, Mayor Jane Castor posted her condolences to Facebook, while reassuring the city that she felt this was unacceptable. “I have directed our Chief Of Police to launch a major city wide enforcement to crackdown on speeding and dangerous driving behavior. No loss of life on our streets is acceptable,” Castor said in the post.
Walk Bike Tampa posted an open letter to Facebook the day after, calling for Mayor Jane Castor to create an open street policy for the duration of the safer-at-home order by either closing all northbound lanes on Bayshore, or closing the outer lane in each direction to cars.
“Our hospitals are readying to serve an unprecedented number of COVID-19 victims,” said Wanda Vinson of Walk Bike Tampa. “We cannot, as a community, afford to overwhelm them with crash victims at the same time. Tampa must act now.”
Castor hasn’t posted anything referencing the crash since.
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This article appears in Apr 2-9, 2020.
