TAMPA, Fla. - Responding to an onslaught of criticism about the dangers of being a pedestrian on Bayshore Boulevard, the Tampa City Council passed a motion on Thursday to have Mayor Jane Castor’s administration consider shutting down the north side lanes of the iconic roadway one Sunday a month. 

“Let’s try it out. Let’s see what happens. Let’s see where the parking goes,” said Councilman John Dingfelder in proposing the motion. “If we don’t make a positive step like that in the right direction…then we’re not going to get anywhere.”

The motion also calls for the city to consider closing other streets throughout the city, such as Nuccio Boulevard in Tampa Heights and New Tampa Blvd. in New Tampa. 

The proposal comes as other major U.S. cities like Oakland and Minneapolis have banished cars along some streets to give residents more space to walk, bike and run during the coronavirus shutdown. But the proposal to shut down the north section of the Bayshore isn’t a direct response to the pandemic, but instead the council’s only action to try quell anger from South Tampa residents about motorists speeding through the 4.5 mile road.

The four-and-a-half-hour electronic public discussion took place less than a month after the latest fatality occurred on Bayshore Boulevard, reviving discussion among transit activists for the city to make major changes along the popular roadway.

“We don’t have a speeding problem. We have a design problem,” said urban planner Josh Frank. “Bayshore and all of our dangerous roadways are engineered for one fast, efficient and concentrated purpose: to move more cars as fast as possible.”

Concerns about public safety on Bayshore isn’t a new issue. Pedestrian fatalities over the decades have prompted similar concerns, and the city’s transportation department has made tangible safety improvements in the past few years. But they haven’t been enough, many citizens said on Thursday.

Bayshore is not the most dangerous road in the city (It’s actually 15, according to a slide presented by Vik Bhide, the city’s mobility director that cited the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization as its source). But the concerns are heightened because Bayshore is also considered a linear park. Hundreds, if not thousands of people walk, run, bike or rollerblade on its north side sidewalk every day – at the same time that an average of 30,000 cars use the road daily.

The city has made several improvements to make the road safe in recent years, such as reducing the speed limit from 40 miles per hour to 35 miles per hour. They’ve also added crosswalks and narrowed driving lanes to slow down traffic, implemented flashing pedestrian beacon crossings, and plans are in the works to add streetlights at the intersections of Rome Avenue and Euclid Avenue.

But it’s not nearly enough, critics contend. 

“The speed limits that are in effect are ineffective,” said Hyde Park resident Richard Jewell, who said it was much safer for him to ride a bike in Chicago. “The tools that have been implement are not reducing the median speed of vehicles on Bayshore.”

Several public speakers said on Thursday that the city should reduce the speed to 25 mph. 

Two years ago, city officials rejected proposals to close down Bayshore on Sundays to allow a communal space- and Mayor Castor indicated earlier this month that she had no desire to closing any parts of the street. In 2018 city officials said that it wouldn’t work because of costs, insurance and permitting concerns. 

But the city may have a different attitude now, according to Dingfelder.

After Councilman Charlie Miranda said he would oppose the proposal because he didn’t have nearly enough information, Dingfelder responded that he has had recent discussions the city’s administrator of infrastructure and mobility, Jean Duncan. He said her department has currently been reviewing such a proposal.

Councilmembers Orlando Gudes and Joe Citro said that there were plenty of other roads that were equally if not more dangerous in the city that didn’t get nearly enough as Bayshore did. Council Chair Luis Viera agreed, but also said that Bayshore Boulevard was a symbol for Tampa.

“I’ve had folks that go,’why are y’all talking about Bayshore?’” he said. “It’s an attraction…I’m fine with the unique emphasis on Bayshore. It’s a unique symbol here in Tampa, a symbol of where we want people to go.”

The Castor administration will come back before the council to discuss the issue on May 21. The proposal requests that these one day a month street shutdowns would begin in June.