Bicyclists head north on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream on Jan. 4 near the site of a crash with an SUV that injured six riders a year earlier. Florida Highway Patrol escorted the cyclists, who rode in remembrance of the crash. Jim Rassol/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
With a December bicycle fatality on State Road A1A in Boca Raton fresh in their minds, more than 300 cyclists took to that roadway in early January — commemorating the first anniversary of a crash in Gulf Stream that injured six riders.
The group hoped to raise awareness of the importance of sharing the road, and organizers said the ride was born in part out of the belief that more needs to be done to make the highway safer. They called for a cultural change among both motorists and bicyclists, even as they and other organizations push for road design improvements and other safety enhancements that are slow in coming.
“We want to bring awareness that we are here and that we are a huge part of the community,” said Jeanine Seeger, one of the leaders of the Florida Share the Road Coalition, which formed after the January 2024 predawn Gulf Stream collision in which an SUV crossed over the center line. “We can’t immediately change the road and we can’t change drivers who don’t care. The only thing we can immediately change is to make sure people are aware.”
Bikes vs. cars
The inherent conflict between bicyclists and motorists on A1A has been an issue for decades, with finger-pointing on both sides. While bicyclists say the motorists need to change their attitudes, law enforcement and people driving on A1A say bicyclists need to do a better job of sharing the road as well.
“There needs to be awareness on both sides, respect on both sides and following of the law on both sides,” said Seeger, who herself was injured in July when a car hit her bicycle from behind while she was riding in Boynton Beach.
At the same time, bicyclists leading safety efforts in Boca Raton say there need to be design changes to the road — such as buffered bicycle lanes.
Even all of those steps, in combination with better signage, might not be enough, says Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones.
“All of these things are useless if people don’t understand the rules,” he said. “We have all different interpretations of the rules.”
One area where bicyclists and law enforcement often disagree is on whether bicyclists can ride two abreast on A1A like they are permitted to do on other state roads. While most in law enforcement say single file is required except when passing, some bicyclists interpret the statute to say that side-by-side is permitted on A1A.
Jones believes that more education of the public in general could be beneficial.
“The Department of Transportation could take a greater initiative in educating motorists and cyclists about the rules of the road,” he said, adding that outreach efforts, literature and even including more information about sharing the road on driver’s tests could be helpful.
Although A1A continues to be a popular roadway for bicyclists, there are indications that collisions with motor vehicles, including the Dec. 15 crash that killed a 41-year-old Boca Raton-area man, are discouraging some from riding there.
Survey measures attitudes
“The most recent crash has more people reluctant to ride on A1A,” said Les Wilson, a Boca Raton cyclist and contributor to the BocaFirst blog that is conducting a survey designed to provide data for decision makers involved in an upcoming Florida Department of Transportation A1A improvement project.
Among the questions asked in the survey were how often bicyclists have experienced near-miss collisions with vehicles, how often both cyclists and drivers have experienced road rage from the other group, and how often drivers have experienced cyclists in the travel lane disrupting the safe flow of traffic.
Wilson also included a question on bike lane smoothness vs. travel lane smoothness.
“Bike lanes on A1A are known to be rough by the cycling community and are one of the major reasons bicyclists leave the bike lane,” he said.
Wilson said that the participation in the survey from both bicyclists and motorists — which could be presented to Boca’s Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board as early as this month — has been “excellent.”
Leaders of the Florida Share the Road Coalition say public officials need to do a better job of improving safety of roadways for all users, and some improvements are in the works, according to FDOT.
Bicyclists, however, say they’re just not enough.
A plan released by the state in June showed proposed improved signage on portions of A1A to encourage sharing the road, including sharrows — markings on the pavement depicting a bicycle with forward-pointing arrows.
That plan, however, was shot down by Gulf Stream town leaders who have also indicated a reluctance to any widening of the road through town. Manalapan officials were also critical of the proposed signage and sharrows in their town.
FDOT road projects
Down the road in Highland Beach, work on an $8.3 million A1A road improvement project is under way, and that project will include 5-foot bike lanes on both sides of the road.
In Boca Raton, FDOT plans a $7.3 million project that will improve the nearly 5-mile stretch of A1A that runs through the city. Work is expected to start in the fall of 2027.
One component of the project is adding 6-foot buffered bike lanes — with a 1-foot buffer and 5 feet of bike lane — to better separate drivers and cyclists.
That, say Wilson and Jim Wood, also with BocaFirst, is inadequate and would not have prevented the December accident.
In the survey, BocaFirst asks for opinions of two alternatives. One alternative would include a 4-foot-wide marked neutral zone between a 4-foot-8 bike lane and the travel lane and the other would include a 7-foot bike lane with a 1-foot-wide buffer. Both alternatives would include reflective markers on the edge of the travel lane.
In addition to those proposals, the city’s Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board has proposed that when the bike lane approaches city parks along A1A, the lane should be routed into the parks. Such a routing through Red Reef Park, near where the December crash happened, could have prevented it, Wilson said.
Mary Hladky contributed to this story.
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