![\"<div>Courtesy:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wtvt_fox_local_articles_521\/ec31dc6ab8c2496c4278a396e0c54aee.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nThe Brief<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg crews are installing new bike lane dividers on First Avenue North from 20th Street to 28th Street to boost cyclist safety.<\/p>\n
The $100,000 pilot project uses rubber barriers nicknamed “zippers” to keep vehicles from drifting onto dedicated bike paths.<\/p>\n
Transportation officials plan to evaluate performance metrics and may expand the protective barriers to First Avenue South and MLK Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Crews in St. Petersburg are placing new protective street dividers along major traffic corridors to keep cars out of bike lanes and increase rider safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg traffic safety<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
Crews are placing rubber traffic dividers, nicknamed “zippers,” between vehicle lanes and bike paths to increase bicyclist comfort and prevent cars from drifting out of their lanes.<\/p>\n
Transportation Manager Cheryl Stacks said the $100,000 pilot project covers First Avenue North from 20th Street to 28th Street.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Courtesy: City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
Critical route<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
“This is a pretty critical bike lane in the city,” Stacks said. “We were able to make some improvements to the bike lane back in 2022 and create a buffer and, so, this allows us to enhance it and give it just a little bit of extra oomph for the bicyclists there.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
She explained they wanted to make sure they were providing emphasis on the areas that are used most frequently.<\/p>\n
![\"<div>Courtesy:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wtvt_fox_local_articles_521\/c76b63b34b777295ff813a55ad05db50.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Courtesy: City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
Future barrier expansion<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
City officials have not specified an exact end date for the pilot project or a precise timeline for expanding the barriers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next city steps<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
Work on the critical corridor, which connects directly to the SunRunner transit line, is expected to finish this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crews could install the zipper dividers along First Avenue South or MLK Street next.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
The information in this story is from Cheryl Stacks, Transportation Manager for the City of St. Pete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief St. Petersburg crews are installing new bike lane dividers on First Avenue North from 20th Street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[145217,145218,122453,145214,4150,145219,145216,145215,202,204,203,199,201,200,145220],"class_list":["post-355910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-20th-street","tag-28th-street","tag-bike-lane","tag-bike-paths","tag-city-of-st-petersburg","tag-manager-cheryl-stacks","tag-pilot-project","tag-protective-barriers","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-vehicle-lanes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}