Local tensions over state plans to make parts of State Road A1A in Palm Beach more friendly to bicyclists boiled over during a Florida Department of Transportation presentation on the road construction at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting.
Mayor Danielle Moore and Town Council members vented their frustration with FDOT for rejecting Palm Beach’s requests that it eliminate designated bicycle lanes and shared vehicular/bicycle lane markings from the plans.
Moore broke into a presentation by Mel Pollock, senior project engineer with The Corradino Group, a consultant to the DOT, about two separate but simultaneous construction projects that began last month on sections of A1A/South Ocean Boulevard/South County Road.
Moore said residents and town officials strongly objected to the DOT’s plan to designate five-foot-wide bicycle lanes on a stretch of A1A in the South End, saying they would worsen traffic congestion and create a safety hazard.
The message was delivered at public meetings hosted by the DOT, but the DOT refused to take the bicycle lanes out of the plans, Moore said.
“You came and you met with us, and you did public outreach, which checked the box,” Moore told Pollock. “But you didn’t listen to a single thing the residents or the town said to you all … I don’t get it. Why bother to do the public outreach if you’re not going to listen to us?”
Residents and town officials also strongly oppose another design feature – the addition of “sharrows,” or pavement markings used on roads to indicate areas where bicyclists and motorists share a lane. Sharrows promote safety by alerting drivers to the possibility of cyclists, the DOT said.
Under state law, bicyclists have shared access to the roads, with the same rights and responsibilities as drivers.
“You all with these bicycle ‘sharrows,’ … are going to get someone killed in those sections,” Moore told the DOT representatives. “It’s incomprehensible. This is a life safety issue. In my opinion, and in the opinion of all residents in the South End, when you met with them, including Mr. [South End resident and Town Council member Lew] Crampton, you didn’t do a single thing to modify or listen to the concerns.”
Moore added, “This is not a great plan. It’s a terrible plan. The only thing we needed was milling and resurfacing. We didn’t need any of this other stuff … the residents hate it.”
Crampton said he attended all three public hearings on the project.
“I was frustrated that you didn’t seem to be listening,” he told the DOT representatives.
Designating bicycle lanes for large groups of bicyclists, then eliminating those lanes as bicyclists ride north on A1A toward Sloan’s Curve, is an “invitation to disaster,” Crampton said.
Councilwoman Julie Araskog said the sharrows will have a crippling effect on the flow of traffic, which already grinds to a standstill at times during the winter season.
“We’re only two lanes,” she said. “You basically are going to back everybody up. Nobody can pass. And you are completely not looking at the rights of most of the citizens. Because most of the bikers who come here are from out of town.”
The bicycle lanes and sharrows are part of a much larger, $14 million overhaul of two sections of A1A/South Ocean Boulevard that began last month.
One project is from north of Emerald Beach Way (near the Bath & Tennis Club) northward to Royal Palm Way, which is 2.3 miles. The $8.3 million undertaking is expected to reach completion in late 2026, Pollock said.
It includes milling and repaving the road; replacing traffic signals with decorative mast arms at Golfview Road and Hammon Avenue, Worth Avenue and Peruvian Avenue; replacing traffic signals with standard mast arms at the Central Fire Station and on Royal Palm Way; upgrading pedestrian signals at those intersections; and improving drainage, lighting, and curb ramps while replacing sections of sidewalk.
The South End project, budgeted at $5.9 million, is from Lake Avenue (Lake Worth Bridge) to north of Ibis Way. Construction is expected to reach completion in the summer of 2026, Pollock said.
In addition to widening the road and designating the bicycle lanes, it calls for milling and resurfacing the road; upgrading pedestrian signals; a new traffic mast arm signal at the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course and a rectangular rapid flashing beacon at Phipps Ocean Park; replacing the asphalt pedestrian path, on the west side of A1A, with concrete; and regrading swales to improve drainage and upgrading curb ramps, signage and pavement markings.
Pollock said widening the road will create a consistent shoulder, and that the improvement in the walking path will be a great benefit to pedestrians.
Town Manager Kirk Blouin said town staff and Moore had regular meetings with DOT staff “and we did object to certain parts of the project, but not all of it.”
“I don’t believe you were at those meetings,” Blouin told Pollock. “It was unanimous, consistent with our mayor and council … the town does not wish to have these sharrows in the middle of the road …”
Blouin said traffic congestion has increased dramatically on the island in the last two years.
“You can’t move, particularly when we have roadblocks,” said Blouin, in a reference to the security measures implemented by the U.S. Secret Service to protect Mar-a-Lago when President Trump is in town. The roadblocks sever the only north-south artery that connects the northern and southern portions of Palm Beach.
“To encourage bicyclists to ride in the center of the road, it’s not helpful to the town, and it could generally create a more dangerous” situation, Blouin said.
The bicyclists can’t be expected to sustain a speed of 25 mph, which is the minimum legal speed on the road, he said.
“It’s complete gridlock,” Blouin said. “I can’t imagine someone on a bicycle putting themselves in harm’s way with the angry motorists.”
Town Engineer Patricia Strayer suggested the town send to the DOT leadership in Tallahassee updated traffic counts recently provided to the town by a traffic consultant showing a 300 percent increase in the traffic volume on County Road.
Pollock replied, “I appreciate that feedback and we’ll definitely take that back to DOT leadership.”
In an interview afterward, Michael Miller, construction manager for the DOT, told the Palm Beach Civic Association that, in reality, the bicyclists are legally permitted to share the traffic lanes and are already doing so in Palm Beach. He said the sharrows promote mutual awareness between the motorists and bicyclists.
“It’s more of an awareness safety feature than anything else, but it captures an existing condition that’s already allowed,” Miller said.
Crampton and Blouin both said the town welcomes many of the improvements associated with the two projects, including safety improvements for pedestrians, drainage and lighting upgrades, the new mast arms, the upgrade of the asphalt pedestrian path to concrete, and the resurfacing of the road.
“All of that is a good thing,” Crampton said.
To receive Palm Beach TV, Our Town News, The Civic and more in your inbox sign up HERE.
To sign up for text notifications from Palm Beach Civic Association go HERE.
Our Town sponsored by:
