PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — People who live and work near the Pinellas Trail are calling for more safety interventions after two crashes involving bikes and vehicles occurred near the trail.
“I tend to walk on the grass myself, down the path here…because I'm always jumping. I’m kind of scared of it," said Marie Grilli, a business owner in Dunedin.
Where bike lights meet traffic lights, caution is not always the priority.
“I think a lot of the time we feel entitled to be like 'Oh, I'm a biker, you should yield to us,' but the reality is if your bike trail has a stop sign, you’re supposed to stop," said Ian Scott, a regular biker.
But that doesn’t always happen.
"We’ve had such courtesy towards bikers for a long time that they are used to the fact that everybody stops…and now maybe with new people and the influx here, it doesn’t happen as much," said Grilli.
Grilli has owned several shops along the Pinellas Trail and said drivers also experience confusion at traffic lights.
“They stop even though they have a green light, we see that a lot, and then the cars behind them honk so those cars that stopped even though it's a green light and there’s bikes coming," said Grilli.
Bikers and business owners are now calling for more safety measures after crashes involving bikes and vehicles occurred this week near or on the Pinellas Trail.
One of the crashes involved a man on an E-bike.
Ian Scott is a regular biker, and he said E-bikes have become a big issue as well.
“They are fast," said Scott.
According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, any speed over 20 miles an hour is considered speeding on the Pinellas Trail, and business owners said they see people going at least 30 miles an hour frequently.
Tampa Bay 28 contacted the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to get information on how many crashes there have been over the last year along the Pinellas Trail involving bikers and vehicles. A spokesperson said the department doesn’t track that information.
Tampa Bay 28 also contacted Forward Pinellas, a road-safety organization, which sent data from the last four years.
According to Forward Pinellas, in 2023 there were 26 pedestrian or bike crashes involving a vehicle along the Pinellas Trail, and in 2024, after a new stretch of the trail was added, that number went up to 50.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has made efforts to improve safety on the Pinellas Trail, but Grilli said more should be done.
“Where there are hotspots, maybe having more of a presence there, and just showing the bikers that they do need to slow down and stop," said Grilli.
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