Tampa BayCycle

Tampa, Florida 

Interview on January 5, 2011 by Jason Jackman

Parker was recently involved in a bicycling accident, here is his story.

I was born in California but grew up in Eugene, Oregon before moving to Florida, and I’ve been biking all my life but really got into it by my senior year in high school. I don’t own a car (I really don’t like driving cars).   I ride a Fuji fixed gear conversion, a Benotto 10 speed, and a Schwinn mountain bike. How far I bike daily depends with errands I have to run and whether I work or not but I’d say a minimum of six miles every day (although not of late).

I was recently involved in an accident while riding my bicycle.  I had just gotten off of work after a really bad day of both school and work and was looking forward to going home, walking my dog, studying for my last final, and going to sleep. It was around 10:30 at night, so I got off of work relatively early and thought that was at least nice. Someone offered me a ride home and I said “nah, I live less than a quarter of a mile away.”  Now, normally, I’m all about using bike lanes if they are present. As many know, there are no bicycle lanes present on 56th street in between Fowler and Busch (Temple Terrace).  So I used the sidewalk (heading Southbound from the corner of Fowler and 56th). I was riding on the crosswalk at the corner of 56th and (Whiteway Dr, next to the DQ) and the last thing I remember is looking at a pair of headlights and that’s it.

I received multiple lacerations and bruises on my forehead, chin, cheekbones, and nose. My two front teeth went through my upper lip completely so I had some holes and no teeth amongst a handful of other chipped ones. I broke my nose at the bridge (ouch!), and many cuts on my hands. (I was wearing a leather jacket due to the weather and that apparently saved my shoulder and right arm, the jacket is shredded in those areas.)

I was not wearing a helmet on account of the short distance (Although the docs told me it wouldn’t have helped that much since I took everything on my face).  He may have meant by no helmet that it was lucky I didn’t land on my skull.  They were never clear on the concussion thing, but I’m guessing I had one. I had a painful headache for about two weeks.  I will try to always wear a helmet when I ride.   I did have lights (Always have lights!)

The accident was reported.  My girlfriend called the cops while she was driving me to the ER.  They never found the driver of the vehicle that hit me.  I would encourage other cyclists to always use lights and wear helmets,  I feel just being aware of your surroundings is probably the most important thing one could do. I was just relaxingly cruising home, not in the “zone.” I feel that had something to do with it.

There is a bike culture in Tampa Bay, but it’s such a spread out area, and hard to get around, it’s hard, (I believe) to achieve a really tight solidarity.

 Tampa isn’t horrible for bicycling; it’s the infrastructure that isn’t good. We have beautiful weather nearly year long, its relatively flat, and there are a lot of cool fun things to do here. It’s just aggravating when you’re trying to get around in a healthy, green, fun fashion and it just gets scary. I just wish Tampa would shape up because it totally can.

 A lot of the roads are bad, the bike lanes randomly end, sidewalks are more like roller coasters, the drivers are rushed, and it’s just impossible to get to certain areas without a car.  That’s not a negative thing though there’s just room for improvement!  On the other hand, cool things to do, beautiful weather, and the North Tampa Bay Flatwoods trails rock! Downtown Tampa and Ybor City are also fun to bike ride destinations.