Bike Trails

The North Port City Commission has given approval to an agreement with Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc. for professional design and engineering services to develop construction plans and documents for a new trailhead and trail connection from Warm Mineral Springs Park to the North Port Connector of the Legacy Trail. The approval, on April 8, is for a 1.7-mile trail extension on the regional Sun Trail network, a component of the broader Florida Gulf Coast Trail. Once fully realized it will be one of the longest continuous trails (420 miles) in Florida traversing seven counties from Tampa to Naples.

Trust for Public Lands has until March 2026 to come up with $70.4 million to purchase the railroad right-of-way that would be the trail bed.

Bonita Springs is supporting the Rails to Trails project, but not asking for millions of dollars from the state. At least not for now.The Bonita Springs City Council voted Wednesday night to let state law-makers know: The Bonita-Estero Rail Trail, or "BERT", is a priority.

Trust for Public Land announced last week that it reached an agreement with Seminole Gulf Railway to purchase 14.9 miles of right-of-way from Alico Road to just south of the Lee-Collier County line for the Bonita-Estero Bike Trail (BERT). The Trust has until March 2026 to raise the money.Using the railroad right-of-way has been talked about for years, said Robert Fay, executive vice-president of the family-run shortline railroad. The railroad stopped using the track after the 2008 recession. Only two businesses were using the line, then one moved to Fort Myers and the second stopped shipping by rail.

• DeSoto named the most dangerous county in Florida for cyclists, averaging over 17 cyclists involved in a fatal collision per 100,000 people.

The proposed conversion of an unused railbed into a public trail between Bonita Beach and Alico roads has developed into a tug-of-war between trail proponents and homeowners along part of the proposed route.

In 2018, the city was awarded "Gold" status as a Bicycle-Friendly Community and it has applied again for that status from the League of American Bicyclists.

At the January 18 Bonita Springs city council meeting, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), who which commissioned the research for the project, presented multiple alternatives for the trail. The two most favored alternatives, according to the study, would replace the existing Seminole Gulf Railway (SGR) with a path that runs through Bonita Springs and Estero. It would start at Bonita Beach Road and end at Alico Avenue.

The "River of Grass Greenway," a proposed 75-mile bike trail along US-41 that would link Naples to Miami, faces a critical vote in Collier County today.…

In a state among the deadliest in the nation for bicyclists and pedestrians, Southwest Florida ranks among the most dangerous parts of the state for those…