Ditch the car, avoid parking fees part II

You can bike to Steinbrenner Field

No one likes paying $30-55 for parking at a baseball game, so we are presenting alternatives.

Last week we shared information about using HART buses to get to George Steinbrenner Field.

Today we’re proposing another alternative: you can ride your bike.

There is, indeed, bicycle parking at the ballpark - and it’s free. You’ll find it on ground level near Gate 2.

Humaira Afzak

Just remember, if you are approaching the park on your bicycle from the Raymond James side of Dale Mabry Highway you can’t use the pedestrian foot bridge. That bridge leads directly to the second level of the stadium, and doesn’t have access to the ground level where you’ll find the bicycle parking. But there are street level crossings you can use, and on gamedays they may have police officers helping pedestrians get across safely.

To get a better idea of how to ride to the park on two wheels, we reached out to an expert — Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, who also leads Sunday morning bicycle rides around Tampa for people who would like to get more comfortable riding on city streets.*

She and her husband, journalist Tim Burke, bicycled to the Rays Opening Day this year. When they had lived in St. Petersburg they had routinely walked or biked to Rays games, something difficult to do once they moved across the Bay to Seminole Heights. But the Rays (temporary?) move to Tampa meant they could get back to that practice.

Sitting on the very busy Dale Mabry Highway, “Tropicana East” may not seem like an ideal bike destination. But it’s surrounded by much quieter neighborhoods which make for more enjoyable biking. “I’ll be honest, we researched pretty heavily on Google Maps before we went,” said Councilmember Hurtak, “and we chose the route that we thought was going to be less car intensive.”

Riding from Seminole Heights, they were able to zig-zag through residential neighborhoods with just a few busier road crossings. “I’ll be honest, I was shocked at how little traffic there was and how easy it was to get there once we figured out our route,” she continued.

To figure out a safe and pleasant route, you can’t just put the ballpark address into Google maps and click “start.” Most mapping apps are set up to show you the most direct route to your destination, which makes sense when you are driving.

But when riding your bike you might prefer the route with the least traffic; you probably don’t want to ride 5 miles along the side of Busch Boulevard. That’s why it’s important to research a good route ahead of time. Councilmember Hurtak points out the the Strava app allows you to see routes your friends have taken; you might be able to find neighbors who have biked to a games at Steinbrenner Field or Raymond James Stadium.

Don’t want to ride the entire way to the game? HART buses are able to carry bicycles, so you can for example bike to the stadium but then load your bike onto a HART bus for the ride back. Councilmember Hurtak cautions, however, that each HART bus can only carry two bicycles, so you could run the risk that a bus doesn’t have room for yours.

Councilmember Hurtak also shares a biking hack for those who live too far to bike the entire route to the stadium. You can load your bike into or on your car, park in an area closer to the stadium, and then ride the remaining few miles. You can park on the street in most Tampa neighborhoods (check signs for restrictions) so you should be able to leave your car for a few hours.

Consider bicycle and bus routes to the stadium — you’ll save on parking costs, avoid some traffic, and have some great stories to tell your friends who can’t imagine that a person can get around Tampa without a car.

*You can join Councilmember Hurtak’s Sunday morning rides — there is one this Sunday (April 27) leaving from Henry and Ola Park in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa. To learn about future rides, follow her on Facebook or Instagram under Lynn Hurtak.