Tampa Bay Times20%
What’s it like to walk across the Howard Frankland Bridge’s new trail? 31%
By Ashley Borja38%
8/4/2026, 3:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Anecdotal, and Biased Writer Voice, with Pessimism Bias as the most egregious example at 14.2% saturation with 182 hits. Analysis detected 1,653 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,285 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33.1% and a BS Rank of 31% (21,316 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 69.70% of the article peer group.
The first time I drove on the Howard Frankland Bridge was by accident.
I missed my exit for the Gandy on my way to an assignment in Northwest Tampa and ended up on the big bridge instead.
I didn’t learn how to drive until I moved to Florida last year.
(I know, pretty late — I’m from New York City and I just relied on public transportation.)
And as a new driver, the Howard Frankland gave me anxiety: There always seemed to be an accident, congestion was frustrating during rush hour, and if you were stuck during a storm, the lack of visibility and high waves could make a lump form in your throat.
Friends who moved here from elsewhere have told me the same.
In late May, the Florida Department of Transportation opened a pedestrian and cycling trail across the bridge, which connects Tampa and St.
Petersburg.
It is the latest piece of a six-year, nearly $1 billion project that also added express toll lanes to the bridge.
Tampa bay residents are hungry for more bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
According to FDOT, the design built in requests from two local transportation planning agencies, Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization and Forward Pinellas, reflecting the growing priority communities have placed on bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
The trail stretches seven miles along the southbound side, joining the many waterside walkways in the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and Riverwalk and the Courtney Campbell Trail, which connects Tampa and Clearwater.
I heard the trail had opened from friends at a recent trivia night.
So, at sunrise on a Friday in June, I started the walk to St.
Petersburg with two coworkers who I’m grateful volunteered to join me.
We carried sports drinks, sunglasses, sunscreen and Nerds gummy clusters for quick fuel.
In theory, I knew what I was signing up for.
I have walked seven miles in one day before.
But that number didn’t account for everything else the bridge brings with it.
Hot, loud and far from clear
At 6 a.m., we pulled up to a relatively deserted gravel area that operated as a parking lot on Reo Street in the Westshore area of Tampa, near the bridge onramp.
Or near-ish.
The lot was adjacent to a construction site, with a large sign that said “workers” and orange nets.
The area was void of any directions for where the trail began, so we spent seven minutes walking the opposite direction until we saw a biker turn toward the construction site.
While it was still dark, pink hues scattered across the sky to our left, foreshadowing the sunrise we were eager to watch over the water as we crossed toward St.
Pete.
It took us half a mile to reach the bridge after entering the trail.
The path itself is 12 feet wide, just enough room for a biker and a pedestrian to pass each other safely.
Cameras were mounted on the poles lining the walkway, and chest-level railings separated pedestrians from Old Tampa Bay.
Water bottles, fast food wrappers, and chip bags lined the walkway.
If you carried a trash bag you could fill it instantly.
Yet there were no trash cans on the walkway.
If you have friends with you, it’s enough time to catch up on the latest news and talk about what you’re watching.
We spent about a quarter of the trip talking about “Love Island USA.”
For much of the trail, we were separated from southbound traffic by nothing more than a concrete barrier.
We had to shout since we could barely hear each other.
We weren’t even able to hear bikers behind us until they rang their bells 20 feet away.
You can feel the bridge bounce as cars pass.
It’s normal; bridges are built to flex.
But it’s still scary .
This was probably one of the grossest walks I’ve done in the Tampa Bay area.
Between the humidity, traffic smog and flecks of gravel kicked up by passing cars that clung to my sunscreen and sweat, I felt like I needed a shower before I’d even finished.
One walker we passed said she wore sunglasses to keep her eyes safe from the dirt of the highway.
Had it not been cloudy, I don’t think I could have done this walk.
There were only four shaded areas where we could catch a break from the heat, and they were miles apart.
There were no other amenities along the way, including bathrooms.
(I’d recommend using one before starting).
During the walk, I kept thinking: What happens if there’s a medical emergency out here?
Aside from the shaded overlooks, there’s nowhere to sit down and get out of the sun, and I’ve seen ambulances struggle to get through traffic at rush hour, so it could be a while before help actually arrives.
With Tampa Bay’s torrential hurricane-season weather, I could also see walkers and bikers getting caught in sudden downpours with nowhere close to take cover.
The Florida Department of Transportation did not respond to calls and emails about the pedestrian bridge, so it’s hard to say whether it will ever get shelters, trash cans, emergency phones or even a proper entrance.
This may be as good as it gets.
By the time we got to the sixth mile, my colleagues were probably fed up with me asking how close we were to finishing.
The full walk, parking lot to parking lot, came to nearly eight miles.
The bridge itself is about seven miles long, but the approach on each end, from the lot to the bridge and back again, added up to almost a mile total.
The end of the road
The bridge trail may be a grind, but there were highlights.
We saw some wildlife.
At the start of our walk, I spotted a horseshoe crab and a reddish egret.
One of my coworkers even saw a dolphin!
The view once you get to St.
Pete is beautiful, with the skyline across the bay and grassy areas when you finally reach land.
Or maybe I just thought that because I was delirious and craving my car’s AC.
By the end of the walk it was 9:34 a.m. and around 90 degrees.
Unless you are committed to walking back and forth (which would be more than 15 miles, including the walk to the parking lot off the bridge) you will need someone to drop you off and/or pick you up.
When we got to St.
Pete, I couldn’t even imagine walking back to Tampa.
The trail seems much more fun for cyclists who are able to cruise the bridge faster.
We saw many bikers, some more than once as they made their way back to their starting point.
For people on foot, the noise and heat might make it a tough experience.
Whichever direction you walk, you’re going to feel that sun on your face or the back of your neck.
Pick your poison.
Aside from the walker with sunglasses who mentioned it was her third attempt to finish the entire bridge, the other walkers we saw were only walking the trail partially.
Overall, I probably wouldn’t do this walk again.
I can see the appeal of having another waterway trail, but out of all the ones I have walked, this was the least pleasant.
As someone who was once afraid to drive it, I’m proud that I can now say I have walked across the Howard Frankland Bridge.
Me from last year would have been impressed.
But if I had to choose between sitting in traffic at 3 p.m. and walking, I would definitely stay in my car.
Speakers
1speaker2.6%attributed speech1,252writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageFlorida Department of Transportation
33 attributed words100% of attributed speech59% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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