letter: Support for adding six foot wide shoulders in City of Tucson

re: Support for adding six foot wide shoulders in City of Tucson


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February 21, 2010

Jim Glock, Director of City of Tucson Transportation
City of Tucson Department of Transportation
201 N. Stone Avenue, 6th Floor, North Wing
POB 27210
Tucson, Arizona 85726-7210

Dear Jim,

The purpose of this letter is to show our support for adding six foot wide shoulders to Golf Links between Swan and Wilmot when using Stimulus funds to resurface the roadway this spring. A six foot paved shoulder would increase safety for all users.

The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists supports following the current Tucson City policy to provide striped shoulders as part of roadway repaving projects. For comparison, in this case, Golf Links has lower speed limits than Oracle Highway north of River Road, and actually has lower traffic volume. Oracle Highway has a traffic volume of 60k vehicles per day at speeds of 50 – 55 mph. Bicycling is facilitated along Oracle Highway with the provision of 6 foot paved shoulders north of River Rd. Golf Links has a traffic volume of 57k vehicles per day with speeds of 40 – 45 mph.
It should also be noted that ADOT district engineer Todd Emery has approved paved shoulders on roadways such as Alvernon under I-10 using Stimulus funds. Alvernon is also a 45 mph roadway with higher traffic volumes.

We join Perimeter Bicycling and the Tucson bicycling community in urging you to consider the long-term safety impact of providing 6-foot striped shoulders on Golf Links. The benefits to the community are great and the road will be resurfaced anyway, so including the white edged stripes to provide for safety for bicyclists and motor vehicle drivers is a wise use of funds.
The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists is a member of the League of American Bicyclists, and a participant in the Bicycle Friendly State and Bicycle Friendly Community rating programs of the LAB. One of our functions is to monitor policy and practice in decisions such as this, and to comment on those choices in our rating feedback to the LAB. We hope that the outcome on this decision can result in another improvement in safety for all road users in this part of Tucson.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Beane, President

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