Pinellas Trail Adopts Courtesy Campaign

Florida’s Pinellas Trail is putting the focus on bike trail etiquette with an eight-week Courtesy Campaign. It’s the first such campaign in the trail’s 30-year history.

“We had a huge influx of people who were using the trail during the pandemic because they needed to get out there and be in nature,” said Joan M. Rice, multi-modal safety officer for Pinellas County Transportation Planning. “But with people covering their faces, they began to look inside themselves. Now we’re encouraging people that everybody is out there so make sure you share your space because that is what we’ve got.”

A New Message Each Week

Each week for eight weeks, a new sign is posted every two miles along the 60-mile trail with a trail etiquette message. Week one’s message was “Be Nice – Say Hi.” See the complete list of messages later in this story. As new signs go up each week, the signs from previous weeks stay, providing courtesy reminders all along the trail.

As trails have become more crowded everywhere, bike trail etiquette (or lack thereof) has become a hot topic in many communities. On many trails, there is also growing tension among different types of trail users, including traditional cyclists, pedestrians, e-bike riders, scooters, and skaters.

Rice said the Pinellas Trail Courtesy Campaign was their way of responding to these concerns. It developed after listening to feedback from trail users in the county’s recent trail visioning study to plan for the next 30 years along the Pinellas Trail.

“One thing we kept coming back to was comments that people don’t know the rules, they aren’t following the rules, they aren’t being courteous,” Rice said. “It started by listening to users of the trail.”

The courtesy campaign is already reaping positive results.

“We’ve had a lot of good comments,” Rice said. “In the first week, we noticed people had more eye contact and saying hello.”

A bike trail etiquette campaign is a positive step that most trails could benefit from. Educating and motivating trail users to abide by trail rules and use courtesy and respect toward others makes sense. It’s a far better approach than some trails are using by seeking to ban e-bikes, a solution that is ineffective and discriminatory.

Pinellas Trail Keeps Growing

The Pinellas Trail, which runs through St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, and other cities along Florida’s Gulf Coast, is one of the most popular bike trails in Florida. It is now celebrating it’s 30th anniversary. What began as a five-mile trail and is now 60 miles continues to grow.

“We keep adding to it,” Rice said. “Right now we have 6.8 miles that is under construction.”

The Pinellas County Loop is a network of trails encircling the county. Even better, it serves as the backbone connecting numerous community trails. To learn more about the Pinellas Trail, see our related story on This E-Bike Life below.

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See Related Story on the Pinellas Trail

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