Bayshore Boulevard is a great place to bike and walk, just take in the beautiful scenery; but the city has also noted the area is a busy area for drivers - which is why after studying this area for months - it's finally making some changes to the layout.
If you're heading north, the improvements to the design of the road would be from Hawthorne Road to Platt Street - heading south, from Howard Road to Platt Street.
The plans include removing faded crosswalks between Rome Avenue and Platt Street, putting in new ones with black contrast lines between the white to make them standout to drivers. The plan calls for signs alerting drivers to bicyclists and bike lanes will be drawn in where they don't exist. Parts of those lanes will be painted bright green.
"One thing I notice as a runner every day is this is what most drivers do," said Francisco Hernandez, holding up a phone. "They are always on their cell phone. That kind of scares me alone just running, it's like hey, what are you doing there? Is it really that important Facebook?"
The city also wants to encourage folks to go slower on Bayshore Blvd. the plans will drop the speed limit from 40 to 35 miles per hour and make the lanes smaller by adding a 2 ft. buffer to the existing bike lanes.
You've probably seen flashing crosswalks around Tampa - when you press the button, the lights begin flashing alerting drivers to stop and wait for you to cross. Magnus Ericson bikes Bayshore every day to and from work and says lighted crosswalks are needed.
"I can find myself ending up here like 4 or 5 minutes to find the opportunity to cross," he said.
The city wants to install 3 of those lighted cross walks on Bayshore Blvd. For renderings of the plans click here.
