SWFBUD Bikes To St. Petersburg To Discuss FTB With St. Pete Bike Club

It was great to bike from Tampa to St. Petersburg this morning to meet Ken Cowart and Julia Gorzka and tell the St. Petersburg Bicycle Club about the plan to rehab the closed Friendship TrailBridge into a world-class linear park over the Bay. We met several dozen St. Pete cyclists at the North Shore Park after the bike club's rides at 10 am and SWFBUD was impressed by the support voiced by the St Pete cyclists for the FTB plan. Here is Ken talking to a club member this morning. 

It was great to see John Sinibaldi of St. Pete and also Boston Bill at the gathering, which included several dozen St. Pete cyclists.

We need everyone to attend a Hillsborough County Commission meeting on June 27 to tell the commissioners to NOT demolish the FTB and instead accept the plan's first goal to conduct a feasibility study during an eight-month period. After meeting the St. Pete Bike Club, SWFBUD biked back to Tampa on the shoulder of the current Gandy Bridge (photo above) and saw these other three road cyclists. The shoulder might be OK for road cyclists but the vast majority of people who ride bicycles are casual bike users who would never bike this shoulder. That's why we need a rehabbed FTB to replace the current bike/ped bridge.