Local cycling enthusiasts warmly embrace the Florida Department of Transportation’s willingness to consider installing wider, buffered bike lanes as part of its planned resurfacing of a 6.74-mile stretch of State Road A1A, north of Vero Beach.
And they should – because the new-and-improved bike lanes are an added safety measure everybody seems to want, even people who haven’t ridden a bicycle since grade school.
At the same time, however, these cycling enthusiasts are giving the cold shoulder to FDOT’s willingness to reconsider its decision to add an east-side sidewalk as part of the same project.
And they shouldn’t – because the sidewalk is an unnecessary intrusion nobody else wants, especially the folks who live in Indian River Shores.
But there’s also a more compelling reason for the cyclists to backpedal on the sidewalk: It’s bad politics.
Fact is, getting the 7-foot-wide, buffered bike lanes isn’t a gimme, despite the endorsements unanimously offered by state, county and Indian River Shores officials, as well as the local Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Recent FDOT policy changes actually prohibit bike lanes on roads where the speed limit is 50 mph or higher, and the resurfacing project includes a 2.3-mile section of A1A where the speed limit is 50 mph.
Therefore, to get the better bike lanes they want, the local cycling groups need to convince FDOT to reduce the speed limit in those areas – and that won’t be easy.
The cyclists will need help. They’ll need allies. They’ll need the support of Indian River Shores residents who don’t want the sidewalk.
So why push it? Why oppose and anger the very people you need to back your play for the bike lanes? Why not compromise?
Surely, there’s a better chance of convincing FDOT to reduce the speed limit and build the safer bike lanes if everyone, including Indian River Shores residents, is on the same team.
Conversely, any significant opposition from the townspeople almost certainly would torpedo the cyclists’ attempts to reduce the speed limit and sink their hopes for the upgraded bike lanes.
Worse, even though FDOT now plans to expand the road’s shoulder as part of the resurfacing project, it could opt to remove the existing bike lane along the stretch where the speed limit is 50 mph.
Let there be no doubt: The 7-foot-wide, buffered bike lanes are needed along State Road A1A.
The cycling groups, which do a fine job of promoting their activity and advocating for safety, are on the right side of the bike-lane argument. And, to be fair, they’re not entirely wrong on the sidewalk issue.
Groups like Bike-Walk Indian River County and the Vero Cycling Club correctly contend that it’s silly to reject the state’s offer to make such improvements at no cost to the local community.
They also argue that an east-side sidewalk would minimize the need for pedestrians to cross A1A to use the existing sidewalk on the other side of the highway and allow sidewalk cyclists – those who don’t feel comfortable in bike lanes – to ride with the flow of traffic in both directions, which is safer because a driver turning from a side street onto the highway will be looking north and might not see a cyclist coming from the south.
What the cycling groups tend to ignore, however, is the fact that there’s no real demand in Indian River Shores for an east-side sidewalk. Generally speaking, nobody there has asked for one. Nobody there wants one.
There’s already a sidewalk along the west side of A1A, and it’s never crowded, even during our busy winter season. So town residents see no need to waste millions of tax dollars to build another one on the east side, where driveways would be disturbed and long-established landscape in the state-owned right-of-way would have to be ripped out.
Shouldn’t the will of the people who live there matter more than the preference of the cyclists riding by?
That debate is likely to play out during FDOT’s two-hour public workshops, scheduled for 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront in Vero Beach.
