Friday, October 16, 2009

"What Can I Do?"

People ask me all the time, "What can I do to help" the bicyclist cause in Tampa?

As you know, Tampa has one of the worst reputations in the country for being unfriendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.

People want change.

But how do you get it?

Well, first you have to let the city of Tampa government hear your voice.

The city has a nice Web site to log on to for the purpose of documenting problems.

It's the customer service center form and you can get it here.

I submitted this today.

Feel free to send in yours.

"Dear Tampa,

"The city's master plan for trails indicates bike lanes on Cass and Tyler streets in downtown Tampa.

"There is a utility project to install new utility lines on Cass and Tyler, yet I have learned the city will not stripe bike lanes on Cass and Tyler when those roads are repaved.

"Why is the city not complying with its own trails master plan and failing to put in bike lanes on Cass and Tyler when you repave those roads?

"As you know, independent reports cite Tampa as one of the most bicycle-unfriendly cities in the country and installing bike lanes on streets that are specifically designated for bike lanes under master plans would help Tampa shake this most negative reputation.

"I look forward to your response."

4 comments:

Donald said...

Just curious... is this the place I should report faulty traffic lights (ones that don't trip for bicycles) to? Or do you know where else I should submit such reports to?

Alan said...

You can go to the menu of city depts. to file a report or stick with this public works transportation form. I would stick with this form because bicycle issues are usually road issues for me. Alan.

GhostRider said...

I just added my voice to the problem...I fully expect some generic response that such improvements were not feasible, yet I keep my fingers crossed.

My "Captcha" on the TampaGov site was "88FAT"...how ironic is that?

Donald said...

Just an update... in my case, my concern was transferred to Tampa Public Works (automatically... how awesome is that?) but they informed me that the intersection is not Tampa-controlled. So now, I'm contacting the Hillsborough County Public Works department here: (http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/publicworks/about/contactus.cfm).