Suppose you’re staying at World Tennis Club in Naples, Florida, and you want to go to the drug store for some supplies. It’s about a half mile north on Airport-Pulling Rd. Here’s a short video showing what it’s like to ride a bicycle there.
Along Airport Rd. Naples, FL from acline on Vimeo.
I mentioned in my last post that I am still tinkering with mounting my camera on my bicycle. This video is still a bit shaky, but better than my first attempt.
I’m riding my Brompton. I’m clamping the mount to the handle bars. So that accounts for some of the odd twisting and turning you see in the video. I think a helmet mount would be better. So I’ll be looking into that next.
The map shows the route from Europa Dr. north on Airport-Pulling Rd. to the intersection at Pine Ridge Rd. There are shopping centers on three corners and a gas station on the fourth. This is a very busy area. Pine Ridge and Airport-Pulling are both six lane arteries with 45 mph speed limits.
I’ve seen lots of bicyclists in the years I’ve been coming here. I’m the first one I’ve ever seen on Airport-Pulling Rd.
The clubs and neighborhoods in the area all have fairly quiet streets. Bicyclists are a common site. The World Tennis Center is a gated community with quiet streets and a cyclist/pedestrian trail from the living areas to the tennis club.
Comments 3
Welcome to Florida!!! I give you big props for venturing out on that road. South Florida has an abundance of incompetent drivers with even more of an entitlement mentality than here.
That passing behavior was insane! Especially the bus. I’ve never experienced that on a 6 lane in Orlando. I get some occasional honking and yelling, but they change lanes.
In Ft Meyers, they’ve built paths along the big roads. They’re a bit better quality than the sidewalk in your video. It’s hard to cross the big intersections from a path though. The right-turning traffic won’t yield (hence our dismal pedestrian stats).
The demographic down there is not one that will be easily enticed to ride bikes… especially in the insufferably hot summer… so it would be a hard sell to get funding to do things right.
The bigger problem is crappy land use and FDOT building traffic sewers to fuel it. It makes people prisoners of the car even if they don’t want to be.
Posted 29 Dec 2009 at 10:32 pm ¶YIKES!!!!!!!!
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 8:36 am ¶Yep… think I’ll stick the grass for that block.
Posted 30 Dec 2009 at 11:08 am ¶