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El Grupo Youth Cycling is turning five and they are celebrating with a party on Sunday.

The family-friendly event will be held on the Playground rooftop deck from 6 to 8 p.m. and will honor El Grupo’s founders Daniela Diamente and Ignacio Rivera de Rosales.

There will be snacks and lemonade provided. Alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase at discounted prices.

Playground is located at 278 E. Congress in downtown Tucson.

Organizers request you RSVP by emailing mark_mandel109@hotmail.com

The 2012 Ride of Silence is happening this evening at 6 p.m. at Reid Park.

The ride was started as a way to remember cyclists that have been injured or killed while riding bikes and takes places in location all across the world.

Here are the details from GABA, the group organizing the ride:

The Ride of Silence™ will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, but the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

Please join us in our participation in the National Ride of Silence on the 16th of May 2012 at 6:00 P.M.

The purpose of this ride is to HONOR those who have been injured or killed on our roads by a vehicle.

We are working to RAISE AWARENESS that we are here and have the legal right to the road.

We ask that everyone SHARE THE ROAD with respect for the law and each other.

Your presence would confirm your support of safety and education for the benefit of our large community of cyclists.

Start: Reid Park at west side Ramada #22, located at the Park’s northernmost parking lot on Country Club Road, gathering at 5:45 pm for light refreshments and send-off. Distance is approximately nine miles.

Leave: 6:00 pm. From the parking area, head south on Country Club Rd., west on 22nd Street, north on Tucson Boulevard, east on E. Elm St. which becomes Pima St., south on Columbus Blvd., west on 22nd Street, north on Country Club Rd., and return to parking lot.

Another Ride of Silence will take place in Green Valley this evening as well. The ride starts at the Green Valley Recreation East Social Center parking lot (Abrego/Esperanza intersection). Light refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m.

Cool video of a nike station.
Post any interesting links in the comment section.
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The crash occurred on Prince Road near Geronimo Avenue.

A motorized bike rider died from the injuries he sustained in a crash with a car at 10 p.m. on May 8, 2012.

According to a Tucson Police Department release, Michael G. Beck, 29, was riding his motorized bicycle west on Prince Road near Geronimo Avenue  when a driver in a Nissan Sentra exited a driveway directly into the path of Beck.

The release said Beck hit the driver side hood and flew over the car landing on the pavement on the other side of the car.

Beck was taken to the hospital, where he stayed until this afternoon when he died from his injuries.

The release said Beck had both front and rear lights operating on the bicycle at the time of the crash.

The driver was issued a civil citation for failure to yield from a private drive.

Beck is the first bicyclist killed in 2012.

Cyclists riding through this intersection at Third Street and Country Club Road will be counted 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A newly installed bicycle counter at the intersection of Country Club Road and Third Street will automatically count cyclists 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The City of Tucson and Pima Association of Governments purchased three counters. Two are mobile tube counters and the third is a permanent counter installed at the bicycle crossing on Third Street.

Tom Thivener, the city’s outgoing bicycle and pedestrian program manager, said they put the counter at Third Street and Country Club Road for several reasons.

“We wanted to put it on a bikeway that gets a fair bit of use that we knew is likely to experience changes especially as Third Street gets extended further east,” he said.

These wires feed into a computer than tracks every cyclist that passes over them.

He added that they could have tried to put the counter at Third and Campbell, but it would have been harder to get all cyclists because the road is so wide, there is not one 10-foot area through which all cyclists would pass.

The bicycle crossing at Country Club collects all the cyclists in a narrow area, which will allow them to get a more accurate count.

Thivener said the regions’ bike planners will work together to create a schedule for the two mobile bike counters and rotate them throughout the region.

The counters have been in the works for some time. Here’s the link to the first story.