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Safety, Cost Concerns Shoot Down Proposal For Bikes On Crosstown

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

If approved, the Selmon Crosstown Expressway's elevated lanes would be closed once a month or quarterly on Sunday mornings to allow bicycles.

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By RICH SHOPES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2009

Updated: 02/23/2009 05:03 pm

TAMPA - The Selmon Crosstown Expressway will stay bike-free.

Cycling enthusiast Alan Snel had asked the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority to close down the Selmon's elevated, reversible lanes one Sunday every month or quarter to allow bicycles.

Snel, a former Tampa Tribune reporter, floated the idea with authority board members last month and said a couple hundred cyclists would turn out to ride on a portion of the 15-mile toll road. A fundraiser on the Selmon in September 2006 was successful and popular with cyclists, he said.

On Thursday, though, safety and cost concerns appear to have shot down the idea. Authority members voted 6-0 to accept a staff report on the issue but not to pursue the idea.

Closing the upper lanes to motorists would mean $7,000 to $8,000 in lost toll revenues each time. Much more expensive, though, would be the cost of renting barriers to make sure no bicyclists plunged off the edge of the expressway.

Outfitting the upper deck with 54-inch barriers would cost $118,000 to $133,000, according to the authority. The expressway has permanent 32-inch barriers in place, but those aren't high enough to ensure cyclists' safety, authority officials said.

Setting up 54-inch, metal barriers similar to the ones commonly used along parade routes would take about 12 hours to set up and break down. There also would be insurance costs and expenses related to having police officers on site, authority members were told.

"It's a little disappointing,'' Snel said. "It seems that the vast majority of the cost had to do with the barriers.''

Only orange traffic cones, not metal barriers, were used during the 2006 fundraiser, Snel said.
Executive Director Joe Waggoner said the authority's first priorities had to be safety and cost.

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633.

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