PANAMA CITY BEACH — For avid cyclist Curtis Flower, the news that the state has agreed to fund a multi-use path along Magnolia Beach Road and Delwood Beach Road is reason to celebrate.
The Florida Department of Transportation entered into a local agency agreement with Bay County to fund the $810,000 needed for the 2-mile path, which will extend from Thomas Drive to Jan Cooley Drive. No local county match is required.
Flower, who takes bicycle trips three to five times a week, said the ride down Magnolia and Delwood has been downright scary, with some drivers whizzing by within a foot or two of him.
He said he’s tried to avoid the corridor because of that reason.
“I go down Magnolia [Beach Road], and it’s scary,” he said. “I hug that white line as tight as I can. Where the two lanes merge into one lane just past both shopping plazas, it’s a bottleneck, and it’s real scary there.”
Flower, who works at Beach Liquors on Beach Boulevard that ties into Magnolia Beach Road, said the new path also would offer a safe corridor for people who don’t have a car ride to get to the shopping plaza there.
“That’s great,” he said. “What it allows people to do is ride their bike down to the store.
“Right now there is just no safe way of doing it, period. I cycle around and through Bay Point because it’s rather straight and secluded and has smooth streets. You go down Magnolia [Beach Road], and it’s scary. Most people will kind of move over a little bit when they are passing you, but some people will pass you and they are like a foot or two from you, and there is nobody coming in the other lane.”
The project is currently being designed, said Dexter Gortemoller, the Bay County project manager who lives in the neighborhood where the path is being built. He said the path could be finished in late spring or the summer of next year.
“It is a mixture of sidewalks and an 8-foot-wide asphalt path,” he said.
Gortemoller said as a resident of the area, he often has seen pedestrians and cyclists trying to travel the corridor on or just to the side of the streets.
Bay County Traffic Engineering Manager Keith Bryant said the multi-use path will connect into an existing sidewalk on Magnolia Beach Road adjacent to Thomas Drive.
“It will mean a safe place [for people] to walk and ride their bikes out of the roadway,” he said. “Currently, we have folks riding bikes along the edge of roadway.”