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Doug Jesseph sets out from his home in Seminole Heights with the wind in his face and pedals under his feet. His goal: a newly painted bike lane on 40th Avenue that runs straight to the University of South Florida.
"That makes the ride a whole lot easier," said Jesseph, a USF philosophy professor who travels eight miles to work by bike several times a week. "It's nice to have that little white line and three feet of space."
Jesseph and his wife, Doreen, are among more than 9,000 people in the Tampa Bay area who commute to work on bicycles, according to Census Bureau estimates. That's more bike commuters than any major city in Florida and one of the highest rates in the United States.
But they remain a sliver of the region's commuters, far outnumbered by the 80 percent of commuters who are solo drivers. Despite bike lanes and other efforts to smooth their journey, bicyclists are feeling like the sliver under siege.
The number of cycling fatalities has declined statewide in recent years — from 130 in 2006 to 83 in 2010 — but showed an increase in 2011.
But the Tampa Bay region regularly ranks among the nation's deadliest metro areas for cyclists and pedestrians, according to the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington-based group that pushes for alternatives to car travel. The Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville areas frequently join Tampa at the top.
For the full article, visit the Tampa Tribune.
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