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Don’t bicycle in Florida

I just saw that the top 4 most dangerous cities to ride a bike are in Florida.

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St. Pete is a famous retirement location and a lot of the bikers you see there are in their 70s. The other Florida cities have a lot of retirees too. Maybe the problem in Florida is with the bikers, not the drivers. Just a guess.
 
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Two blocks from my house today. 40 mph speed limit. The elderly woman pulled out from the side street into the path of the Chevy, causing it to skid two blocks where it came to a rest on the pole. Drivers (not all, of course) don’t stop at signs, lights, or crosswalks. Drivers don’t look for cars, bikes, or pedestrians, or are distracted, or are impaired, or are ill, or don’t have as acute senses or the same ability to process info as when younger. It’s not the cyclist in the overwhelming majority of instances.
 

rockviper

I got moves like Jagger
... but the cyclists are the ones who pay the price.

"It's not who has the right of way, it's about who's left"
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Whether the rock or the window is to blame ... things will not go well for the window.

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timwcic

"Look what I found"
Living in St. Petersburg I can tell you it is not a safe to be on two wheels or four (wheel chair or scooter). It is as if cars will go out of the way to scare you. A few times a week, local news reports another hit and run.

St. Pete is a famous retirement location and a lot of the bikers you see there are in their 70s. The other Florida cities have a lot of retirees too. Maybe the problem in Florida is with the bikers, not the drivers. Just a guess.

Not any more. Retirees can not afford to live here any more. Millennials and hipsters have moved in. Million dollar condos sell out before they are built.
 
Living in St. Petersburg I can tell you it is not a safe to be on two wheels or four (wheel chair or scooter). It is as if cars will go out of the way to scare you. A few times a week, local news reports another hit and run.



Not any more. Retirees can not afford to live here any more. Millennials and hipsters have moved in. Million dollar condos sell out before they are built.

Agree that St. Pete isn't like it was fifty years ago. It's more like Tampa now. But I still don't see many children there. And I do see an awful lot of old dottards (like me). And yeah, I take my bike with me when I go there, old fool that I am.
 
St. Pete is a famous retirement location and a lot of the bikers you see there are in their 70s. The other Florida cities have a lot of retirees too. Maybe the problem in Florida is with the bikers, not the drivers. Just a guess.

At one time, St. Pete was called the elephants' graveyard: old folks went there to die! Not anymore. St. Pete has changed dramatically. When I lived there it changed from an older community to a very yuppie type community. Real estate prices, particularly on Beach Drive, have skyrocketed to over $1 million. In some areas of St. Pete the streets are very old and in some places are made of stone. The streets are very narrow and there is not much room for autos and bikes. Riding a bike can be a challenge. In the areas outside of downtown, many of the accidents when I lived there involved youngsters who would pay no attention to traffic laws. It was not unusual to see a young rider going the wrong way on a street and running red lights.

Tampa, on the other hand, is not a retirement community. Also, there are many communities there who cater to tourists and many of them rent bikes. However, often they find it difficult to handle the traffic particularly by the narrow lanes in beach communities.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
In some areas of St. Pete the streets are very old and in some places are made of stone. The streets are very narrow and there is not much room for autos and bikes.

In the areas outside of downtown, many of the accidents when I lived there involved youngsters who would pay no attention to traffic laws.

Road networks not designed to be "bike friendly" and recklessly unpredictable cyclists are both potential factors. I don't think that road designers have to go so far as to make special bike lanes and such, but simply having enough shoulder space (well paved without bike-threatening obstacles like drain grates) to safely accommodate cycling can go a long way to helping the situation.

Cyclists should make themselves visible and predictable, and as much as possible follow the rules of the road. I don't mind cyclists bending the rules where safe to do so, but they can't just do whatever they want and expect the world to be focused on their safety.
 
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