The Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization is backing St. Pete’s initiative to implement a bike share program in and around downtown. But they’re doing so with some caveats.
In an update penned by MPO executive director Whit Blanton, the board spent an hour and a half hearing from St. Pete’s director of transportation Evan Mory, Coast Bike Share’s Eric Trull and a member of its own staff, Rodney Chatman about the plan. That also included a robust discussion among the board.
“It was the longest and most energetic discussion of my tenure here as the MPO’s executive director,” Blanton wrote. “Every board member participated in the discussion with thoughtful questions and insightful observations.”
Blanton explained the board recognized St. Pete’s urban core as a good place to launch a bike share in Pinellas County because it “functions best in a compact urban environment with multiple destinations within a one to three-mile distance.”
They also applauded the program as a way to bridge the “first mile, last mile” issue with public transportation. The county’s bus service run by the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, or PSTA, offers bus routes all over the county from the beaches to the Bay and from South St, Pete all the way to the northern part of the county.
But for individuals who rely on buses as their main form of transportation, getting to and from bus stops can be a problem. The bikes could, in some instances, allow riders to use a bike to get from stop to bus or vice-versa.
They also looked at it as a way to increase multi-modal transportation options.
But the group also had some concerns.
“Here in Pinellas County, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) is challenged with funding replacement buses and other capital facilities to maintain a state of good repair, and does not have the operating revenue necessary to expand service at the frequency and coverage needed to attract a larger share of the population,” Blanton wrote.
Within the next several years, PSTA is going to be charged with the tough task of trying to figure out how to maintain current service levels at its existing funding level.
Blanton pointed out that a bill co-sponsored by Florida U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Republican, and Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon would make bike share programs eligible for federally funded transportation grants.
“While I recognize that bike share is a form of public transportation and applaud that kind of flexibility in use of federal funds, I worry that it could be used to divert needed dollars away from cash-strapped transit agencies that depend on every dime of federal funds they are eligible to receive,” Blanton wrote.
He continued that the organization’s support of one component of transportation won’t undermine support for the entire system.
St. Pete’s proposed program would be funded solely from city money. Parking and impact fees would pay for $500,000 each while another $500,000 would be used from the city’s BP oil spill settlement money.
The issue is dragging slowly through the halls of City Hall as some City Council members question the wisdom of using city funds for bike share when there are other more pressing uses.
Just Wednesday, City Council member Steve Kornell took to Facebook to lament the city should instead get behind efforts to expand trolley service into Midtown and further West into St. Pete. While trolley service is facilitated and largely funded through PSTA, the city subsidizes fares on the route with about $70,000 per year.
And City Council member Karl Nurse is reluctant to use BP oil spill settlement money because the city is staring down the barrel at millions of dollars in repairs and replacement of wastewater infrastructure.
During a workshop this month council voted to bring it back for a committee discussion, but stopped short of putting on a council agenda for a vote.
