Month: November 2010

New faces in CAzbike Leadership

Sterling Baer has been elected to serve as a board member of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists. Sterling is the a founder of the Not One More Foundation, a group who is dedicated to ending the cyclist-vehicle accidents on the roads today; and provides support and outreach to cyclists injured as the result of vehicle-bike incidents.
Also, welcome to MaryKaye Black has joined our organization as an advisory board member. MaryKaye is active in cycling issues with ADOT in the SE region and Apache Junction.

Spectrum to Gateway Bicycle Boulevard in Phoenix

On Wednesday evening (11.03), City of Phoenix Traffic Engineer and Bicycle Coordinator Joseph Perez presented his proposal of a Bicycle Boulevard in Phoenix running from Spectrum Mall through the northern “Presidential” streets of downtown through to Gateway Community College (40th St & Van Buren). Several representatives from neighborhood associations on or near the route were present as well as a dozen or so concerned citizens, mostly cycling enthusiasts.

Three alternative routes through the downtown area are being studied and one of the goals of this meeting was to select the best. These routes use collector and residential streets, but no arterial roads so that vehicular traffic is not a deterrent to cyclists.
Objectives of the boulevard itself is to provide a well designated route to connect origin and destinations along the way likely to be used by cycling commuters and recreational cyclists such as:
Spectrum Mall
Light Rail stations
Phoenix Public Market
Hance Park
Arts and Culture locations
Grand Canal
Gateway CC
Access to Tempe
The boulevard will be marked by signs, Bike Lanes (where appropriate), and informational signs giving the distance and time to important destinations near the route. In certain areas “Bike Dots” will be used on the road surface to remind motorists and cyclists alike that they are using a shared roadway. Depending upon which alternative route is actually chosen, one to three HAWK signals will be installed to insure the safety of the crossings of the arterial streets.
Construction consists of paint, signage and signals, which can be done within the City Transportation on-going budget funds. No road rerouting, pavement or curbing work is needed. This looks like a great addition to the cycle-ability of Phoenix. If used as much as anticipated, other such boulevards can be added. This has happened in other cities in the US.

Price/Hwy 101 Frontage roads Edge lines are back!

Due to the involvement of the CAzB and a number of other concerned individuals, ADOT was persuaded to re-stripe the Price/Hwy101 frontage roads with edgelines to reconstitute the “bike lanes” (striped but not marked as bicycle lanes) that were previously marked prior to the recent re-paving project. Many bicyclists who live and ride in the area weighed in on this…which illustrates the value of the bicycling community coming together to create a strong, unified voice.