SWFBUD Interviews Tampa Mayoral Candidate Dick Greco

SWFBUD caught up with Tampa mayoral candidate Dick Greco today to find out his views on bicycling and what he would do to make Tampa more bicycle-friendly if elected mayor. Ed Collins joined me and here are the Greco highlights:

-- "You'd be in charge, not me . . . you just educated me in two minutes." Greco would have a bicycle advisory committee to advise him on bike projects.

-- Greco floated the idea of building a bicycle lane down the center of Bayshore Blvd.

-- Greco recalled visiting Cuba and being asked by Castro about whether he rides a bicycle. Greco recalled there were few cars in Cuba and that most bike to work. "I never thought of it as a transpoprtation piece."

-- Greco said he would work to promote bicycling.

-- He said the roads are dangerous. He said motorists don't see bicyclists.

-- "I don't wear a (bike) helmet when I ride. I probably should."

-- "A lot of it is education."

-- He would create a bicycle safety advisory committee and "y'all probably have a million ideas. We would get a list of things we'd do and we'd check them off one by one as we do them."

-- "The more you talk about bicycling, the more the committee talks about bicycling, the more it gets into people's head."

-- "It's an educational process."

-- Greco is not a big fan of bicycling over the Platt Street Bridge: "You talk about the Platt Street Bridge, I wouldn't drive over that son-of-a-bitch on a bicycle."

-- "I'm sure y'all have a 100 ideas and you'll let me know what they are and we'll get it done . . . we'll educate people on TV and radio."

-- He said oldtime Tampa residents are "not used to" bicyclists on the road. They "should slow down and take care (when passing a bicyclist) but they probably don't like it."

-- Greco suggested using part of the rail track right-of-way for a bicycle path in the Channelside area to downtown Tampa.

-- On the bicycle front, Greco said, "Count me in. Get a group, we'll assign someone from the city, then have periodic meetings to see how much we can implement."