clippings – Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists

AZ Republic: How bicyclist-friendly is your city?

How bicyclist-friendly is your city? Group ranks metro Phoenix efforts…

Phoenix-area communities over the past several years have increased their efforts to make their streets bicycle friendly…

For Bob Beane, president of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists, a statewide advocacy group for bicyclists, “My biggest issue with plans such as Phoenix and Arizona Department of Transportation is not usually the content, but rather the commitment to implement.”

That’s not to say Beane doesn’t support bicycles being a focal point in plans. He calls attention to potential pedestrian and bicycle bridges over Interstates 10 and 17 in the Maricopa Association of Governments’ Spine Study… read more

3 Serious/Fatal crashes in Phoenix on Friday

On Friday 9/23/2016 in Phoenix, two bicyclists were killed, and a third was seriously injured injured in three separate incidents. Police have so far not released many details.

[24th St and 202, 36th Ave and Van Buren, the serious injury was at 16th St and Southern]

We lost two bicycle riders in Phoenix, yesterday, and a third is in the hospital with serious injuries. Three separate crashes. We will follow all three to try to insure that appropriate citations, if any, are issued and to (as always) see what we can learn from each crash that we can use to prevent similar tragedies in the future. That’s part of what we do. — Bob Beane, President, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists

Such a string of events attracts a demand for breaking news coverage, below is a brief interview, and below that the news piece that appeared in The Arizona Republic on Saturday…

what are things bikes can do to be safer on the roads?
(1) Be visible and predictable (bright clothing, lights, etc. in low light; signal movements, etc.),
(2) Ride with traffic. It is NOT safe to ride facing traffic and it is against the law in AZ.
(3) Always be aware and don’t assume that drivers will see you and/or do “the right thing”…in other words, ride your bike with confidence but defensively.
what are things motorists can do to avoid endangering bicyclists?
(1) Make safe driving your #1, #2 and #3 priority…no texting, no phone calls, no Internet searches…put the phone down while driving,
(2) Be on the lookout for Vulnerable Roadway Users including bicyclists, pedestrians, road workers and law enforcement/emergency personnel,
(3) Remember that it only takes a few seconds to save or end a life, depending on your attitude and level of care.
why do you think many incidents involving bicyclists and cars go unreported to police?
Actually, over 800 have been reported so far this year in AZ. Thankfully, only a small percentage of those have been serious or fatal. My guess is that some incidents involving little or no injury are agreed between the parties as not necessary to report.
what specific reform do you think Arizona needs to help reduce bicyclist and motorist fatalities?
Several: (1) More and better education of both motorists and bicyclists as to safe “co-existence” on the road, including re-testing of drivers every five or ten years as laws change and required testing within 90 days for drivers moving in-state,
(2) Comprehensive texting, Internet and hand-held phone use ban with penalties comparable to DUI…in other words, we need to return to the concept that safe driving is priority one and various distractions that result in injury and death need to have significant consequences.

Separate traffic collisions in Phoenix kill 2 bicyclists, seriously injure another

SAUNDRA WILSON sewilson@arizonarepublic.com

THE REPUBLIC | AZCENTRAL.COM

Three separate collisions occurred between bicyclists and motor vehicles in Phoenix on Friday, leaving two bike riders dead and one more in the hospital with serious injuries.

One of the cyclists was killed Fridaymorning around 6 a. near 24th Street and Loop 202. Five hours later, a second cyclist died after colliding with a truck around 11 a.m.

Phoenix police reported a third bicycle- car collision near 16th Street and East Southern Avenue at about 11:30 a.m. The cyclist, an adult man, suffered serious injuries and was transported to a local hospital, police said.

The collisions prompted temporary lane closures to allow police to investigate on Van Buren Street from 37th to 39th avenues, and on Southern Avenue between 16th and 18th streets.

According to records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 29 Arizona bicyclists died in motor vehicle collisions in 2015. Fifteen of the incidents were in Maricopa County, the data show.

Countless more bicyclists have been seriously injured, a number that remains elusive because only an estimated 10 percent of bicycle crashes causing serious injuries are reported to police, data from pedbikeinfo.org revealed. [This isn’t quite the case, longer explanation and details here]

The average age of bicyclists killed in traffic collisions is 43, a NHTSA report said. An overwhelming percent of bicyclists killed are men and nearly half of the fatalities occur between 4 p.m. and midnight, according to the report.

Bob Beane, the president of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists, believes Arizona needs “more and better education of both motorists and bicyclists as to safe ‘co-existence’ on the road.”

“We need to return to the concept that safe driving is priority one and various distractions that result in injury and death need to have significant consequences,” Beane said in an email.

In order to be safer on the roads, Beane said bicyclists should wear bright clothing and ride bikes with lights to be more visible to motorists.

“Ride your bike with confidence but defensively,” Beane said, emphasizing that bike riders should not assume drivers see them.

Beane said motorists can contribute to bicyclist safety by remembering that “it only takes a few seconds to save or end a life, depending on your attitude and level of care.”

Republic reporter Megan Janetsky contributed to this article.

Arizona Bicycling Summit to Unify Advocates

“The 2016 Arizona Bicycling Summit promises to be the premier bike advocacy event of the year, uniting the voices of bicyclists across Arizona…” — Mar-Apr2016 issue of TailWinds Magazine; read the article online.

For more information, or to register for the Summit visit www.cazbike.org/summit

.pdf version: marApr2016tailwinds

Beane: ADOT needs to broaden its concept of transportation

Commentary by Coalition President Bob Beane, regarding the South Mountain Freeway (the last remaining unbuilt portion of Loop 202), set to begin construction later this year…

Beane: ADOT needs to broaden its concept of transportation

Posted: Tuesday, January 12, 2016 4:56 pm
Commentary by Bob Beane Special to AFN (Ahwatukee Foothill News)

Roughly six years ago, a locally based Federal Highway Administration official assured me (verbally, of course) that ADOT would be required to accommodate the bicycling community (transportation-oriented and recreational/fitness) if/when the 202 “Pecos” freeway was built going around South Mountain to the west. The “accommodation” requested was/is a road or pathway to connect to 51st Avenue from the western edge of the Ahwatukee Foothills.

Initially, ADOT was gathering related input from bicyclists. But, somewhere along the way, the ”accommodation” seems to have evaporated. Possibly, it coincided with the inability to achieve an alignment that didn’t require costly blasting through two ridges at the west end of South Mountain. So, within a $1.75 billion project with four freeway lanes in each direction (really?), cost savings need to come from NOT providing for any means for bicyclists, pedestrians or any other non-vehicular mode users to be able to cover roughly four miles (or less) between the western edge of the Ahwatukee Foothills and 51st Avenue.

As it stands today, no accommodation is planned that I know of or can discern from publicly released plans. There are no connecting frontage roads, and there are no plans for a bike path in the right of way (as have been built in places such as Colorado or Utah).
However, a concerned group of bicycling advocates and some community leaders from Phoenix, Chandler and Tempe are seeking to at least get ADOT to design in enough space within the right of way to allow a bike path to be constructed. I can’t speak for everyone in the group, but the consensus seems to be that having this connectivity in place would be an equitable and extremely positive non-vehicular transportation connection and recreational amenity that would enhance the neighboring communities.
Setting aside the issue of whether this freeway project is truly needed, it seems to many that ADOT still stands for “Arizona Department of Trucks (and Cars)” and that ADOT remains miles away from being a true transportation department that has a broader vision of its role and potential in contributing a multi-modal environment to the communities in which it operates. ADOT leadership, to date, seems to lack any vision of contributing to the overall health and community environment in a way that other DOTs have embraced for years.
A fraction of a fraction of the cost of this massive project could not only allocate space within the design, but fund a bike path for at least four miles, or so. But, that’s, sadly, not in the plans…yet. As I mentioned, there is a significant constituency that is asking for ADOT to incorporate non-vehicular connectivity into the 202 freeway plans. We are hopeful that ADOT can take a significant community-oriented step forward by approaching this request with a “how can we help make this happen” attitude, rather than the perceived car-centric, liability and cost-based blinders that seem to have guided past decision-making.
Ahwatukee resident Bob Beane is president of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists.

PDF of print edition: BeaneAFN_Guest_Commentary

More about the South Mountain Freeway

Official ADOT homepage for SMF. The South Mountain Freeway is the last piece to complete the Loop 202 and Loop 101 freeway system. The freeway is a part of the Regional Transportation Plan funding passed by Maricopa County voters in 2004 by Proposition 400, a 0.5% sales tax, proceeds of which predominantly fund freeway construction.

Time to raise penalties for distracted, negligent driving

The following guest commentary by Bob Beane was published in the Ahwatukee Foothill News 12/28/2014:

Recently, a bicyclist was killed on Pecos Road. Then, this past week, another cyclist was killed and two others hospitalized following an accident.
Nationally, driver fatalities appear to be declining (due to increasing occupant-oriented safety measures built into vehicles), but there is evidence that pedestrian and bicyclists fatalities are headed in the other direction. In fact, the U.S. Department of Transportation has just been tasked, by a rarely bipartisan Congress, with developing a separate metric to assess this very issue.
There are a number of new campaigns (Nissan red thumb band, It Can Wait, etc.) that ask motor vehicle drivers to stay off their cell phones while driving. And, there are other campaigns that attempt to address DUI, speeding and the need to slow down and move over when approaching public safety vehicles at roadside.
It is now time in Arizona to combine these informational campaigns with more significant penalties for negligent and inattentive driving, including much higher fines, longer suspension of driving privileges and serious jail time when crashes are caused that result in injury or death. Be it a pedestrian, a bicyclist or another vehicle driver, everyone deserves our full attention to “job one” when we drive: which is the safety of the driver, passengers and other roadway users. Nothing less should be acceptable, and we should back that up with commensurate legal consequences.
As a society, we need to emphasize the point that driving is a privilege, not a right, and we should legally enforce the expectation that sharing the roadway with others requires a higher standard of care.

Bob Beane is an economics graduate of the College of Wooster and an MBA accounting graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is also a bicycling advocate and has been a resident of Ahwatukee since 1992.

ReinventPHX Canals

Canal Photo courtesy of
Roadboy’s Travels

There was a major series of articles in the Arizona Republic spotlighting potential upgrades to Phoenix’s canal infrastructure:

Dubbed Reinvent PHX, the project includes plans to transform areas where the canal crosses rail lines, creating urban hubs that celebrate the iconic waterways. Residents who have commented on the planning effort have listed canal development and improvements as a top priority…
Bob Jenson, an avid biker who lives near the canal, said the ride is so unpleasant that he’s avoided it for years, instead taking surface streets or heading north to the more commuter-friendly and scenic Arizona Canal. But Jenson sees major potential if Phoenix moves forward with plans to create a series of highly visible, safe crossings along the Grand Canal.
“It could be taken all the way down from my house to Tempe,” said Jenson, vice president of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists. “One of our problems is we don’t really have that much in the line of east-west connections” for bicyclists. Phoenix is studying areas where the Grand Canal crosses major streets, such as Seventh Avenue, Seventh Street and Indian School Road. The Street Transportation Department wants to turn the canal into a major corridor for bike riders and pedestrians to safely travel across the city.

Bike Master Plan Aims To Boost Ridership, Increase Safety

City of Phx Bike Coord Joe Perez
in front of the new green bike
lane on Grand Avenue.

(Photo by Nick Blumberg-KJZZ)

The city of Phoenix is in the last stages of putting together a huge document, outlining its plans to make getting around on a bicycle easier and safer. It will address infrastructure for bikers and the relationship between bikes and cars….
“Admittedly, I’m a bit biased, but there aren’t a lot of things I can see that are really negative about bicycling,” said Bob Beane, president of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists, “and I think Arizona is just kind of lagging.”
Still, Beane sees opportunities. He said several of Arizona’s cities have been ranked by a national group as being bike-friendly and that Phoenix and Glendale got honorable mentions. Beane said if those two cities improve, Arizona would become the state with the highest percentage of the population living in a bicycle-friendly community. read the rest of the storty on 91.5 Continue reading Bike Master Plan Aims To Boost Ridership, Increase Safety

Jim Thompson Spins Again

The following letter was submitted for publication in the Ahwatukee Foothill News,
Jim Thompson “Spins” Again

Dear Editor,

In response to Jim Thompson’s letter of May 9, I have the following to say. In bicycling circles, “spin” has to do with high RPM training…with Jim Thompson it is just the political-type “change what someone else said to suit my argument” version:

Jim, do you expect people to take seriously a viewpoint based on totally misrepresenting what someone else says and believes? I never said that “ bicyclists own the highway” and I don’t advocate that position. If you want to debate a viewpoint, at least do it honestly without misrepresenting the other party.
The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists advocates sharing the road and simply wants all road users to exercise care. Asking drivers not to use GPS, cell phones, etc., while driving (which numerous studies show is equivalent or worse than even low level DUI/drug impairment) isn’t unreasonable, in my opinion. And, enacting laws that put unsafe behavior, whether created by alcohol or inattention, at the same standard and set equivalent punishment for equivalent results makes sense to me. What part of injuring or killing someone by driving unsafely seems OK to you?
If Jim was honest about his “wonderful world”, I suspect that he would admit that many more motorists aggravate him than bicyclists. I both drive and ride, and I don’t have selective memory. I notice violations and “failure to share the road” by both groups. In my “real world”, many more vehicle drivers violate laws and offend other motorists than bicyclists. The difference is that I am fact-based, while Jim just “spins” other people’s comments and exercises selective memory to create a foil for his anti-bike attitude.

When a guy like this takes a situation where three people simply exercising/training on their bikes and following the law are critically injured by an inattentive driver and tries to twist it into something it isn’t (referring to a totally different situation), it just shows us his stripes. The CAzB doesn’t defend riding three-abreast, Jim. In fact, we educate bicyclists (adults and kids), motorists, and law enforcement on AZ laws and safe cycling and driving.

If Jim did his homework (web site and/or Facebook) he would know what we stand for and advocate. He wouldn’t have to mischaracterize. So, to make it easy for Jim: We advocate enforcing the laws for both drivers and bicyclists. And, we also (the main point of my commentary) advocate requiring a higher standard of care for motorists than currently exists, because a motor vehicle that weighs 2,000+ pounds combined with inattentive or impaired driving can be quite deadly to other car/truck drivers, motorcyclists (think Carefree Highway), bicyclists, pedestrians, and law enforcement officers at traffic stops (how many of those sad stories have we seen in the last ten years, Jim?). Technology allows many more distractions to be present in vehicles than ten years ago, but societal expectations and AZ laws, for the most part, have not kept up with this change.
Jim, I don’t expect to change your attitude toward bicycling as a legitimate form of transportation, athletic/exercise activity, health and wellness and good clean fun, but I’m not going to let you get away with mischaracterizing my views and that of the organization/community that we represent.

Bob Beane,
President, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists

Driving is not a right…it is a privilege AND a responsibility!

The following letter was published last week in the Ahwatukee Foothill News,

Dear Editor,

Recently, three competitive bicyclists training in the far East Valley were run into and critically injured by a driver who was reportedly adjusting her GPS device. As a bicycling advocate, I’m very upset by this. But, this story and situation is much larger than cycling. It’s about attitudes and behavior behind the wheel.

Three good guys, competitive athletes and family members are possibly alive today only because another group riding behind them included four medically-trained bicyclists (a doctor, EMT and a couple of dentists was the story I heard…it’s probably mostly correct). It took more than 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

But, the main point I want to make is that these guys were riding single file in a bike lane and/or at the far right of the road. They were “Sharing the Road” and respecting motor vehicle drivers’ space MORE THAN required by law (riders can ride two abreast, legally).

With all the technology moving into cars and cell phones, there are a multitude of distractions for drivers that didn’t exist five or ten years ago. Yet, our expectations of drivers, as codified in our laws and as reflected in societal behaviors, have not kept pace. It is inexcusable, in my opinion, that a driver is doing ANYTHING in a car (other than having an uncontrollable medical event) that causes them to drive off the road into a bike lane or shoulder where bicyclists are riding, a couple is walking their dog (narrowly missed in this particular incident, I am told) or young children are walking.

If you are “anti-bike”, think about having your child or grandchild in the same space that these cyclists were riding. Or, think about your parents or grandparents walking there…or you being there with your pet in front of you and being run over.

Again, this is not solely a bicycling issue. However, I will remind our readers that current law specifies penalties and fines for killing a bicyclist or pedestrian which are substantially less than marginally exceeding BAC limits for alcohol, but injuring nobody. I’m not suggesting any lowering of DUI limits, and I fully support what MADD has achieved. I’m simply suggesting that pedestrians and bicyclists don’t have the same “lobbying strength”, but common sense and humanity should provide our legislature and local communities the impetus to create penalties for such behavior at a comparable or higher level…so that drivers begin to get the message. It is beyond time to send a message that driving a potentially lethal vehicle is serious business.

It is not OK to treat driving as a casual endeavor. People’s lives, health, livelihoods and quality of life are in danger of a driver’s lax attitude and inattention. Let’s get people refocused on the concept that driving involves the responsibility of keeping other road users safe, be they other drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians or pets/animals. When you drive, you do not own the road…you share it with others.

Bob Beane,
President, Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists

School is back in session: please drive carefully

Back to school safety media day: CAzB president Bob Beane was on hand along with Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal to remind motorists that school is back in session and to exercise extra care.

For motorists:

Please exercise care when passing bicyclists.
Allow a safe passing distance (at least 3 feet, per AZ law).
Exercise extra care when making right and left hand turns across traffic and bike routes/lanes.
Look both ways at all driveways and intersections

For bicyclists:

Make sure your bike is in good working order (brakes, handlebars, etc.)
Be visible. If riding after dusk and before dawn, make sure you have a front light and rear reflector that meets AZ legal requirements. We also suggest a rear red light in addition to the required reflector.
Ride predictably.
Ride defensively (don’t assume that motorists see you).
Ride with traffic (same direction)…it’s safer than riding opposing traffic.
Wear a bicycle helmet.

www.azfamily.com

The group Active Living Resource Center (ALRC) provides resources and tools to help you make walking and bicycling part of your community’s healthy lifestyle.
There is an excellent brief guide there “Bicycle Safety: What every parent should know“.