A 19-mile long paved trail runs from Palatka to southwest of St. Augustine. | Florida State Parks
Published on November 17, 2025 at 12:13 pm
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A new survey from the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization is seeking input from the public about paved walking and biking trails in St. Johns County.
The survey is part of a mission from the organization to collect data about trails for future county projects.
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The planning organization works with Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties to plan and fund transportation projects as well as collect data on how to keep pedestrians, cyclists and drivers safer.
For this project, Public Affairs Manager Marci Larson says the goal is to collect feedback from people who are familiar with St. Johns County’s trails to determine what could be improved.
“Just by the nature of St. Johns County, they have a lot of interest in trails and pedestrian issues,” Larson says. “They have a lot of active residents, citizens who get involved and voice their opinion.”
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For the purpose of the survey, the planning organization is looking at how residents feel about shared-use trails designed for non-motorized vehicles — for example, walking trails that can be shared by cyclists.
The survey will remain open through the end of November. After that, once the answers are processed, St. Johns County will get the results to use as guidance for potential future projects.
What trail users say
While there are miles of paved trails around St. Johns County, regular trail users say they are not evenly distributed.
Tom Simon lives in the Nocatee community and says he and fellow residents love their paved greenway.
Simon is one of the leaders of the Ponte Vedra Ruck Club, a walking group with some 2,000 members who meet every week to walk various routes around Nocatee while wearing weighted vests.
Nocatee’s developer, the PARC Group, built those paths.
“We have an embarrassment of riches of great paved paths in Nocatee,” Simon says, “and it would be great if St. Johns County also had that level of access to recreational walking paths.”
South of Nocatee in St. Augustine, cyclists from the West Augustine Wheelers bicycle group say cyclists would love to ride on paved paths far away from cars. With the lack of trails in St. Augustine proper, Teresa Rose says safety for pedestrians and cyclists is top of mind.
“I think there are some really wonderful trails in St. Johns County,” Rose says, “but nothing connects to St. Augustine, and St. Augustine is still really unsafe.”
While St. Augustine has approved plans to make downtown St. Augustine more pedestrian-friendly, Rose has asked where bikes fit into that plan.
She plans rides for the West Augustine bicycle group along with Petal Hinkle. The two agreed that just about any ride around St. Augustine — or even the longer rides they sometimes take to Palatka or Jacksonville — are often dangerous due to having to ride in bike lanes with nearby cars flying by.
“I’ll sometimes scout in a car to see what the terrain looks like,” Rose says. “Even with that, there’s never a ride I go on in this area where there isn’t something dangerous on the road.”
The North Florida Transportation Organization’s survey will be available through the end of November. Click here to take the survey and provide input about the county’s trail systems.
