St. Pete: City on the Move

Scoot Pedal Sail Ride

Getting around the ‘Burg without a car keeps getting easier

BY MARCIA BIGGS

When Steven and Haley Herzfeld need to get around downtown St. Pete, they usually set out on their bikes to ride the several miles from their home in North Kenwood. Moving here four years ago from Boulder, Colorado, they were looking for the same bikefriendly urban environment that they had become accustomed to.

Steven, 32, says they moved to St. Pete because they liked the neighborhoods and the “micro-mobility” – a transportation system that offers safe options for single users such as bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters. “You could call us an urban millennial couple,” he admits. “We both work from home and we share one car, which basically sits in the driveway most of the time. When we go out we usually take our bikes, or if it’s going to be a late night we take Uber. Quite often we shop online, so we don’t need to get in a car and drive.”

The Herzfelds are like many other young professionals who have opted to make St. Pete home. “We like that the City has taken such a pro-active stance on mobility,” said Steven. “They craft ordinances and create plans to address future issues. It makes for a great place to live.”

On any given day, one need not look far to see that downtown St. Pete is on the move … on bikes, scooters, trolleys, shuttles, buses and on foot. Every few blocks there’s a hub of pretty blue bikes or scooters — corrals for 300 Coast rental bikes and 450 e-scooters. Look up to see a bright yellow and red rubber wheel trolley pass by. It’s a free ride called the Looper that lets passengers get on and off at all the city’s major museums and attractions.

Awaiting passengers in the Vinoy Basin, the Cross Bay Ferry catamaran entices explorers to catch a breeze and head across the bay between downtown St. Pete and Tampa. At the new St. Pete Pier, a free tram transports visitors from beginning to end. Along Bayshore Drive, a small roaming pink vehicle with BEEP on the hood is AVA, an electric self-driving shuttle. AVA (short for Autonomous Vehicle Advantage) travels between the Vinoy Renaissance and the Dali Museum Wednesdays through Sundays until February 15. It made its appearance in late November as part of a three month PSTA/ FDOT pilot program.

Giving people transportation options is what it’s all about, says Cheryl Stacks, transportation manager for the City of St. Petersburg. With guidance from a comprehensive Complete Streets mobility plan that was adopted in 2019, city officials are putting into action a long-term program aimed at getting residents and visitors out and about without the need for a personal vehicle.

“What we are trying to do is increase mobility options so regardless of the mode you want to take around St. Petersburg, there is a way and a safe infrastructure for you to do so,” said Stacks. “Certainly if it’s going to advance the city’s other goals related to sustainability or public health, economic development or social equity, we are all in favor of it.”

Indeed, St. Pete’s attractive waterfront, abundance of parks, bike trails and bicycle street paths are all encouragements for an active, outdoor lifestyle. It’s all part of a growing and vital downtown, where residential living is growing by leaps and bounds.

Residents are flocking to a carefree and car-free way of life, says Nicole Roberts, spokesperson for Car-Free St. Pete, an initiative that encourages and educates residents to know all the alternatives to driving a car. It’s a joint effort between Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, Coast Bikes, the Cross Bay Ferry and the Downtown Looper Trolley. A map on the carfreestpete.com web site shows where people can find hubs for bike shares and scooters, along with Looper trolley and bus stops stretching from the Gateway area north of downtown to Pinellas Point. Recently added is the route for the SunRunner, the new rapid transit bus that will take passengers from downtown to the St. Pete beaches starting in 2022.

“I feel people are getting more and more open to the idea,” says Roberts, who spearheads the campaign for the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. “The bus system, the Cross Bay Ferry, Coast bike share, e-scooters all encourage people to know there are car-free options and to see the benefits. Not only is it healthy and better for the environment, you can save a lot of money by taking alternative transit and living with one less car.”

Planning for Complete Streets

Alternative vehicles are actually nothing new in the ‘Burg. The U.S. Postal Service has been operating a crew of bicycle mail carriers from the Open Air Station on Fourth Street North downtown since 1917. They work the routes around the Old Northeast neighborhood as a way to deal with limited parking and navigating the narrow brick streets and alleyways.

St. Petersburg officials have long pursued diverse transportation options to improve safety and quality of life for its citizens and visitors. The City adopted the CityTrails Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan in 2003, which included the following vision to shape the future development of the multimodal transportation network: “St. Petersburg will be a city with a balanced transportation system designed to move people safely and effectively. Pedestrian and bicycle facilities shall be designed, encouraged, and celebrated as indicators of a healthy city.”

In 2015, St. Pete City Council passed a resolution in support of the Complete Streets program and, after four years of public workshops, surveys and open houses, an implementation plan was adopted in May 2019. With input from a broad swath of city departments, organizations, Pinellas County and Forward Pinellas, the 100-page document outlines strategic measures and goals to promote safety and accessibility on roadways, trails and transit systems for people walking, bicycling, and driving in all neighborhoods.

The plan called for the formation of the Mayor’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, which continues today in guiding the creation of a network of trails and bike lanes throughout the city. There are some 50 miles of trails and 72 miles of bicycle routes, including shared lane markings (sharrows), shoulders, bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, and separated bike lanes. More are being planned as part of the Complete Streets program.

A Bicycle Friendly Business Program is a certificate program that rewards those who promote and assist staff and visitors who arrive by bicycle. Popular sports bar Ferg’s near Tropicana Field, for example, recognized that many customers complained about parking. Owner Mark Ferguson added larger bike racks and turned an outdoor seating area into semi-secure parking for bike clubs or groups. Black Crow Coffee owner Deana Hawk converted a parking space outside her business into a bike corral, encouraging guests to arrive by two wheels.

A City regulation also requires new development to provide bicycle parking sufficient to meet the needs of their users. New condo and apartment towers are now providing “velo rooms” on the ground floor for tenants for bike storage and lockers.

Bike sharing for all

Coast Bike Share, which began in 2016 as a pilot program, quickly became a part of the downtown scene. After only one year, the 300 bikes had logged 45,673 rider trips covering 91,591 miles. A usage study found that more than half (55%) of trips taken are by users residing within the city. In 2017, the bike share received formal approval as a transit option for downtown.

Joe Freeman, regional manager for Coast Bike Share in St. Petersburg, admits that the pandemic has skewed the numbers in 2020, but that ridership is picking up as people seek more outdoor activity. When the virus first kicked in around March, he said, ridership bottomed out. But now he thinks many people are realizing that bike riding can be safe and a great way to relieve stress, get exercise and get around without the hassles of a vehicle.

He stresses that his staff is adamant about disinfecting all bike touchpoints daily with CDC-approved sanitizer. “The bike share system is designed for short trips in and around downtown, basically trips that are too long for walking and too short for driving,” says Freeman. “We see two main camps of users - the young professionals who live downtown and use them for getting around, and out-of-towners who want recreational rides along the waterfront. It’s pretty clear now that bikes are an important part of the St. Pete lifestyle.”

Coming this spring, the City is partnering with Coast Bikes to introduce 100 electric or “assisted” bikes to the fleet of pedal bikes. According to a 2018 micromobility study by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, e-bikes are used on average twice as frequently as pedal bikes in cities that offer both. Minneapolis, for example, plans to transition its entire fleet of rentals from pedal to electric.

“We think the e-bikes will be attractive to people who might not necessarily want to pedal a bike or ride a scooter,” says Freeman. “In addition, they will extend the range that people can ride, allowing longer rides.”

Ferry takes off

At the same time Coast Bikes launched, the Cross Bay Ferry made its debut also as a pilot program, traversing Tampa Bay between St. Pete and downtown Tampa. It became a popular mode of transit for concert and hockey fans who soon realized they could trade the hassles of driving over the bridge and parking, for a cool ride aboard a sleek, modern ferry boat. The ferry even welcomes bikes on board.

“We are still seeing a good ridership, especially on weekends, even though there are no games at Amalie,” says Kevin Fisher, general manager of the Cross Bay Ferry. “Most of our passengers are pleasure riders. They are discovering they can go to Tampa to visit Ybor City or the Riverwalk, or they come over from Tampa to see the new Pier or go to the restaurants, and they don’t have to get in a car and drive.”

The ferry, operated by HMS Ferries, is conforming to CDC guidelines for passenger safety, Fisher adds, including sanitizing all surfaces between runs and limiting capacity. Its future remains cloudy, however, as a four-year funding commitment from city and county governments and FDOT ends after this season. The ferry is expected to run through April 30.

Around town on e-scooters

This fall, the latest mode of getting around hit the streets. St. Petersburg joins the ranks of some 100 towns and cities offering the e-scooter sharing system. Two vendors – Razor and Veo – are responsible for some 450 motorized scooters. The good news is that City officials did their homework, not rushing into the scooter rentals like many other cities which were caught off-guard by their explosive use, abuse and controversy.

After nearly a year of research and stakeholder surveys by the City of St. Petersburg Transportation and Parking Management Department, City Council voted to approve agreements with two scooter operators. A comprehensive plan creates a scooter program unique to the walkable nature of downtown St. Pete, according to city transportation manager Cheryl Stacks.

The St. Pete program prohibits scooters on sidewalks, the Pier and the Waterfront Trails (Demens Landing to Coffee Pot Park), and the riders will rack up fees if the scooters are not returned to a hub. A public education campaign on social media explains how to use the bikes safely. So far, the response has been very good, says Stacks. “In the first month by early December, we documented almost 10,000 scooter rides,” she said.

A scooter hub awaits riders on Beach Drive in downtown St. Pete.

Finally, the colorful Looper trolley has become a welcome sight as it cruises the streets of downtown, a free hop-on hop-off way to get around downtown in 15 minutes, seven days a week. Ridership on the trolley nearly doubled from 2018 to 2019, and it’s become a free shuttle to and from Tampa Bay Rays games from downtown parking garages.

Excerpts from the St. Petersburg Complete Street Implementation Plan (2019) were used in this article.

To find a Car-Free St. Pete map of all routes, hubs and options to driving a car go to carfreestpete.com.

To find a comprehensive guide to bicycle laws and city trails for bicycles and runners, go to stpete.org and click on Parks and Recreation, City Trails.

GETTING AROUND DOWNTOWN

An ongoing Downtown St. Pete Mobility Study being conducted by Forward Pinellas kicked off in early 2020 with an online survey of people who live, work or visit downtown St. Pete. In partnership with the City and the Florida Department of Transportation, the study included a survey and public listening sessions to help craft a vision for multimodal mobility in the greater downtown area. From lower income neighborhoods in south St. Pete to middle and upper income neighborhoods such as Old Northeast, the study is looking at everything from crashes and fatalities, to bike lanes, sidewalks and transit connections.

The initial survey of 500 respondents showed just over half will walk as their preferred mode of transit, while 20 percent will bike or use their own vehicles to get around. Bicycle and pedestrian safety, along with connecting neighborhoods, were key needs expressed. With a look at growth patterns in and around downtown and socioeconomic considerations, the study found that in the next 25 years, the city will experience highest growth in employment and population at the Tropicana site, Edge and Grand Central districts, Historic Uptown, and the Innovation District.

To see an overview of the study and findings from the Summer 2020 Survey, go to http://ForwardPinellas. org/DTSP/ Additional public comments will continue to be sought through spring 2021. Follow the web site to keep updated.