Question about the bike/walking trail

I'll cook up some popcorn and wait for the replies on both sides of the fence. Here's my take...all two cents worth.

Legally, bikes are just as entitled to the road as cars and are bound by the same traffic laws. Do all road bikes abide? No...and that pisses of drivers of cars (rightly so).

Unfortunately, the bike path does not lend itself to road bikes traveling at 20-25mph on tires inflated to 125psi. There is more trash than you can imagine that will cause blow outs.
Road bike speed is to fast for the paths to be safe with all the pedestrian and casual cycle traffic.

That being said there are tons of drivers who have no clue, think that road bikes are the surge of the Earth, and get very aggressive driving around them on the road.

There are bike path etiquette rules regarding courtesy, too, but they are largely ignored.

I feel your pain!

What Will said!! The speed limit on the bike/pedestrian path is 8mph. We are all to share the road. Cyclists to stop at stop signs, ride single file, signal turns, and act just like any vehicle crossing the road. Drivers are to maintain a safe distance, pass when safe and allow bikes at a stop sign or light to go when it is their turn. It seldom happens on either side though. My bike lives in my garage as a result.

Sadly we left on Saturday to come back home from our annual family trip and as usual I am depressed:(.I have a question tho that someone local maybe able to answer.We of course used the trail quite a bit both walking early and bikeing in the evenings and noticed alot of what we refer to as serious bikers not using the trail just flying down 30A,some being passed REALLY close to by traffic.Are these riders supposed to be on the hwy and if so have any of them been injured by traffic? We always ride on our side single file as we have a tandem bike for our SIL/GSON and don't want any accidents.A couple evenings we were shoved off by some of the bikers pulling grocerys behind them about 2-3 bikes wide.Oh well if that was our only problem to worry about:roll:! We have been coming to the area for over 20 yrs and shoved off or not we can't wait to return to paradise.

Yes, the road is legal for cyclists. There are actually share the road signs posted.

Personally, I use both the road and the path. Road through Seaside, Seagrove Beach, Watercolor, portions of Seacrest and Rosemary Beach where there is a higher density of joggers and cyclists clogging the path, and where motorists tend to stop only AFTER crossing the bike path from the numerous cross streets and driveways. In these areas the speed limit on the road is lower and often I can keep up with motor vehicle traffic. Include the area east of Santa Rosa Beach where 30A is wider and provides a good line of site.

But, in the summer I am out at sunrise and traffic is generally light. Over the last 8 years I have noticed increased bicycle traffic on the path and the road. As already mentioned, too many drivers are aggressive or distracted. Unfortunately, I feel safer commuting by bicycle through the streets of Manhattan than on or off the road on 30A.

There are some great paths in Panama City. Along Route 79 and a path that crosses 79 and accesses the conversation center. If you are staying on the West end of 30A it's not a bad ride along the Panama City Beach to 79, if it's not spring break.

See this article: www.newsherald.com

A fresh 22-mile system of walking and biking trails will open this year at the new Panama City Beach Conservation Park, but similar exercise paths exist in town with plans to link the parts together into a whole.


Affectionately called “Gayle’s Trails” after Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst, the system includes the walking paths at Aaron Bessant Park and Frank Brown Park, as well as stretches of Power Line Road, North Gulf Boulevard and State 79, Oberst said Friday.


At some point in the future, “long after I’m gone,” Oberst said, the hope is that an unbroken system will stretch from the Walton County line to St. Andrews State Park.


During recent Bay County Tourist Development Council discussions about enhancing the concert facilities at Aaron Bessant Park, Oberst, who sits on the board, was assured at her insistence that the park’s system of trails would not be harmed.


“We don’t want to do anything to those trails,” she said.


Future plans could include linking Frank Brown Park and Aaron Bessant Park with a walkway over Back Beach Road (U.S. 98), plans that originally fell through when private landowner St. Joe Co. balked at the idea, she said.


Oberst, who often talks about the importance of the city’s walking trails for local residents, said proposals call for linking the paths at Frank Brown Park north to Power Line Road. Power Line Road would link Colony Club with a path that stretches along State 79 north to the B.V. Buchanan Bridge at West Bay.


The 22 miles at the new conservation park west of State 79, into which the city’s excess treated wastewater now flows, would link up with Power Line Road east of the four-lane state roadway.


Oberst said plans call for a blinking light at that intersection and enhanced landscaping and vegetation on the median. Bikers could push a button to turn the blinking yellow light to red, she said.


The move toward more pedestrian-friendly areas in the city is also one of the guiding principals behind the roadway plans of Panama City Beach’s Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), with its push to remold roadways such as Richard Jackson Boulevard and Front Beach Road into areas more accessible to walkers and bikers.

My post in a previous thread discussing the same issue.

Any serious road bike rider can tell you the bike path is not adequete or safe for the speeds of an accomphlised road rider. Throw in the tourist, kids, and it's just dangerous.
Yes, 30A is crowded, narrow and the bikers do hold up traffic but where are they going to ride..98?

The reason the riders don't hung the edge is cars will attempt to "squeeze" past with inches of space thus endangering the rider. I realize it's a sensitive issue with people who do not ride but until our country embraces true, safe bike paths there are few options for riders.
If 98 had a nice, wide, divided path like the one on Hwy 79 going north toward the airport it would certainly help the 30A issue.

While I owned and road a road bike when I lived in Texas I sold it after moving here and ride my mountain bike on the trails on 30A due to the very issue we are discussing.

Cyclists get defensive because drivers are defensive. Drivers get defensive because cyclists are defensive.

Hmmm . . . what to do?

Drivers ease up on the gas and imagine it is your brother on the bike. Bikers get one size larger spandex.

Can't we all just get along?

I have rarely seen a bike stop and wait their turn at a stop sign.

I have rarely seen a bike stop and wait their turn at a stop sign.

That's certainly justification for running them off the road.

I rarely see motor vehicles stop before crossing the path and rolling onto 30A from driveways and cross streets.

Y'all know how I feel about this one 😀

I don't know the original intent, but I would wager that the path was designed for "recreational" biking for the family. We on 30-A are usually in a more relaxed atmosphere which is reflected by the path along it. The majority of the bikers using the road seem to be fixated on getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is not safe for them to be on the path. Actually, it's not safe for them anywhere during the season. What's the rush, anyway? Relax that Spandex a notch. You'll do us all a favor.

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

Riding fast is fun though. Especially since you get a little bit of hill with some of the dunes along 30-A and get a rare chance in these parts to get some good coasting momentum going.

It's hard to take the "Share the Road" argument in good faith when you are doing 18 in a 45 behind 15 other cars so some self-important road biker can make a point that he has a right to the roads as well.

Here's what I don't get: why all the hostility and snark? I recently (unintentionally) got into this argument on FaceBook when a "serious" biker was offended by a comment that another of my friends had made. I don't have an actual problem with the cyclists themselves--they've got every right to be there--but I DO have a problem with peoples reactions to them when it puts me and mine in danger. We all know that there are those drivers who will whip around cyclists and into the other lane, regardless of oncoming traffic. And, let's be honest, not everyone driving on 30a is a tourist--some of us DO have to get to work, and PJJ is correct: it's hard to be stuck in a line up of 10-15 cars behind one or two bikers who are doing nowhere NEAR the speed limit, despite their claims to the contrary. It can be a problem.

The thing that gets me is that I was actually ON the side of the cyclists in this conversation, and all I got was ridiculed for my lack of knowledge. I suggested that perhaps it would be a good compromise for the cyclists to use the road in those areas where bike path traffic was heavy, but then shift to the path in those long stretches of 30a where actual traffic gets heavy but there's seldom any bike path traffic... The response was this: "I find it interesting that folks who have probably have never ridden father than approximately 20 miles on a bike EVER are always the experts." And yet, here's PennStater above, another cyclist, saying that that is precisely his (or her) approach. Why does it always have to be a "you wouldn't understand" thing? Just because I don't don the spandex and run triathalons, I am incapable of understanding that the cyclists want to ride in what they deem the safest, easiest place? I get it, but that IS the concept of "sharing" the road--looking at not just YOUR needs, but the needs of everyone for safer and easier--this goes for drivers, too. And I'm not going to say "It's the beach, lighten up and go with the flow" because some of us DO have places to be, but that doesn't give me any right to put the bikers in danger any more than it gives the bikers the right to put me in danger. Both sides need to give a little.

For the record, the cyclist in question also lost my support when he stated that "Usually, it is overweight--high BMI--folks/drivers who gives us local NW FL cyclists ANY type of hard time while riding." Is that REALLY what cyclists think? Because I know LOTS of people who complain about the cyclists, and they really seem to come in all shapes and sizes... I don't have anything against the cyclists because of my weight, or my health, or my physical aptitude... I simply want the road to safe for everyone. Why do we have to lower the conversation to this? As I told him; I think that a little more tolerance all around would do us all some good. /rant off/

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

kurt +1 :floor:

It's hard to take the "Share the Road" argument in good faith when you are doing 18 in a 45 behind 15 other cars so some self-important road biker can make a point that he has a right to the roads as well.

Seriously? You can't manage a safe pass around a cyclist? Also, there is only a very short stretch of 30A that is a 45MPH Zone. Yes, some cyclists do take up a little too much space but I could say the same about some "Self-Important" folks in their cars getting all worked up because they'll get to the stop sign a few seconds later than if the cyclists wasn't there.

Seriously? You can't manage a safe pass around a cyclist? Also, there is only a very short stretch of 30A that is a 45MPH Zone. Yes, some cyclists do take up a little too much space but I could say the same about some "Self-Important" folks in their cars getting all worked up because they'll get to the stop sign a few seconds later than if the cyclists wasn't there.

Yes, seriously, I can't manage a safe pass when I'm the 12th car in line. And yes, there are short stretches of 30a that are a 45 mph zone. When I have to drive it several times per day, it becomes much less infrequent.

That's certainly justification for running them off the road.

I rarely see motor vehicles stop before crossing the path and rolling onto 30A from driveways and cross streets.

Excuse me? Where did I say that I justified running bikes off the road?

bad bikers

The big problem I encounter almost daily are riders who want the right to the road but don't want to obey the rules of the road. I have yet to see A bicyclist riding on 30a stop at a stop sign. I would love to see an ordinance that prohibited unmotorized vehicles on the roadway like it prohibits motorized vehicles on the bike path.

With no shoulder, hills and curves, many drivers unfamiliar with the road the spandex cad bikers on 30a are a danger to themselves and others.

Is it the male or female Spandex that has to be slaughtered?

A note that may be obvious to some but maybe not to all. If a cyclist is wearing spandex and on a bike that cost $1,000+, then the bike path is not an option. Not even a consideration.

The bike path is for families on bikes, kids, cats, joggers, strollers, skateboards, bears, walkers, rollerblades, dogs, Rollergirl, snakes, and Jason Aldean.

And my mom on her trike. I'm going to attach one of those bright orange flags to her trike, and a sound system so you will see her coming. Oh wait- you will hear her. She will be talking (yelling) on her cell phone while navigating the bike path in Seagrove. I keep telling her that she will not die of old lady stuff- but will get creamed by a car pulling out along 30A, or some other way, but her odds are very high that it will happen on the bike path.

We don't allow our daughter on certain sections of the bike path when it is busy- like now!