INDIAN RIVER COUNTY—Until a few years ago, county road-and-bridge improvements were limited to improving safety for drivers.
But now, with bicycling growing in popularity among baby boomers and millennials as a popular alternative means of transportation, county Metropolitan Planning Organization officials (MPO) are looking to add safer bike lanes and wider shoulders along county roads.
It’s working with local bicycling groups such as Vero Cycling—which began about four years ago with a handful of members and since has grown to about 250 people—to meet the needs of bicycle commuters and those looking for recreation and exercise, said Indian River County MPO Director Phil Matson.
Still, the county has a lot of improvements to make, bicyclists say.
“[Bicyclists] don’t feel safe,” said Hugh Aaron, president of Bike Walk Indian River County, a nonprofit bicycling-advocacy group. “In general, the roads in Indian River County are not particularly safe for riding a bicycle.”
Bike-friendly roads are essential for the newest bicyclist group—those who bike to work or shopping, said bicyclist Tad Diesel. They are an essential part of the economy, he said.
“Without their bikes, they don’t have jobs. They don’t have transportation, and so their access to the economy is taken away,” he said.
It’s this group that Bike Walk Indian River County advocates for when talking with county engineers about the need for bike lanes, Diesel said. Engineers do appreciate the economic benefits of infrastructure that provides people with a safe way to work compared to pacifying those looking for a better recreational ride, he said.
Ten years ago, when people discussed road issues, few cared about bicyclists or bike lanes, Matson said. With the community’s changing concerns, however, the county is changing as well, he said. The MPO created a bicycle advisory committee and now designs bike lanes as part of most new road projects and works with developers to ensure new communities have sidewalks and bike paths, he said.
The county has adopted a “complete streets” policy, which requires every road-improvement project to have adequate space for vehicles, pedestrians and bike riders, ideally with a buffered bike lane or at least a wide shoulder to accommodate bicyclists, Matson said. An example is the $1.2-million 45th Street beautification project in Gifford that includes widening the road and adding sidewalks, designated bike paths and landscaping, he said.
The League of American Bicyclists last year designated Indian River a Bronze Bicycle-Friendly Community for its efforts in education, advocacy, infrastructure, planning and enforcement. But more needs to be done, bicyclists said.
Indian River County got adequate grades on its infrastructure and road quality, but only because state- and Vero Beach-maintained roads are superior to those maintained by the county, according to Aaron. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is committed to the concept of “complete streets,” he said.
FDOT, for example, is planning a buffered bike lane on 17th Street from US 1 to the Alma Lee Loy Bridge.
Infrastructure improvements will come slowly, Matson said, because of the lack of property to widen the road. Adding bike lanes is easy if the county owns the adjacent property, Matson said. It becomes more difficult for roads that were built to be narrow, he said.