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.

Despite an intense effort by government officials throughout the Tucson and Pima County region, Tucson was not upgraded to a platinum community by the League of American Bicyclists, who announced the award this morning.

Tucson remains a gold level community and will not be able to apply for an upgrade until 2016.

LAB president Andy Clarke said safety issues and low ridership numbers were the biggest factors in their decision to keep Tucson as a gold community.

“Tucson’s numbers don’t stack up when it comes to bumping the region up into the platinum category,” Clarke said.

He said the number of people riding to work in Tucson is much lower than the three platinum communities. The three U.S. cities with platinum status are Davis, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Boulder, Colo.

“There isn’t a magic number that we have set as a threshold, what we have done is looked at the communities that have made platinum and gone back and looked at what their levels of use are.”

In Davis 21 percent of the people ride to work. In Boulder the number is 10-12 percent and in Portland, eight percent ride bikes to work. About three percent of Tucsonans ride to work.

He said the LAB took into account the strong recreational ridership in Tucson.

“We understand  — and it was well explained — that journeys to work may not be the best number for us to use when looking at Tucson so we took into account that fact,” Clarke said.”Still the documented level of use we see on the ground in Tucson just isn’t quite there. On a more anecdotal level, when you go to a place like Boulder, when you go to a place like Davis, when you go to a place like Portland, you can’t avoid, but see and feel and behave like you are in place where bicycling is at the core of the community. We are not sure that large swaths of the Tucson region are yet in the same category.”

Safety was also a concern.

“Clearly things are getting better and the safety numbers are improving every year, but again compared to the platinum level we have seen in other communities, the crash record is not as good as we woud like to see,” Clarke said.

Pima Association of Governments planner Ann Chanecka, who led the platinum application committee, said she wasn’t shocked by the decisions.

“Everyone was pretty mixed about it and saw reasons we could potentially be upgraded, but it is still hard to do that and so I think people weren’t sure one way or another,” she said.

Chanecka said there are some good things to take away from the decision.

“I think what they are telling us is that we are great,” Chanecka said. “They are acknowledging how much we have done to accomodate and make our region more bike friendly and at the same time to be the best in the country there is still a ways to go.”

Clarke said Tucson’s application was the most well-done application they have ever seen.

“For the last eight years there has been no community that has put more into the application, into the process, into responding to the feedback we have given. The completeness of the application, the amazing things the community has been doing collectively is honestly second to none,” he said. “The application, the process, the committees, etc… is still the poster child for the rest of the program and the rest of the country. We honestly feel kind of awful that we can’t give the platinum award just for effort.”

Do you think Tucson deserves to be a Platinum city?

This update is for the week of May 14, 2012.

Please note: Roadway closures indicate areas where roads are closed to vehicular and bicycle traffic. Pedestrian access adjacent to these closures will be maintained at all times. Cyclists must walk their bikes while using the sidewalks.

I-10 and West End of Line

This area of the project includes the west side of Interstate 10, Cushing Street under I-10 to Granada Avenue and Granada Avenue to Congress Street. Traffic control in this area is as follows:

• No traffic control associated with the Modern Streetcar project is scheduled in the west side of I-10 area for the week of May 14, 2012.

Downtown

This area of the project includes Congress Street and Broadway through downtown from Granada Avenue to 5th Avenue. Traffic control in this area is as follows:

• On-street parking will not be permitted along Broadway between Granada and Fifth Avenues.
• ONGOING: During Congress Street work, there will be intermittent closures of 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue at Congress Street.
• ONGOING: Scott Avenue is closed at Congress Street for approximately four months. Access to businesses north and south of the intersection, as well as access to street parking and garages off Scott Avenue, will be maintained.
• Construction on Congress Street includes curb to curb removal of asphalt and major excavation for utility relocations before the roadway is reconstructed with rail. The extensive nature of this work requires full closures 24 hours per day.

Click the image to see a larger version of the map.

Fourth Avenue and University Boulevard

This area of the project includes 4th Avenue from the 4th Avenue underpass to University Boulevard, University Boulevard to Main Gate Square, and Park Avenue to 2nd Street. Traffic control in this area is as follows:

• On Monday, May 14, University Boulevard will be closed to vehicular and bicycle traffic between Third Avenue and Euclid Avenue and between Euclid and Park Avenues. This closure will be in place for approximately four months while the contractor completes the removal of the existing roadway, underground utility work, rail placement and installation of the Overhead Conductor System.

• The intersections of University Boulevard with Bean Avenue, Second Avenue, Jacobus Avenue, First Avenue and Tyndal will be closed to through traffic.
• Traffic along Third, Euclid and Park Avenues will not be affected during this work.

• Sidewalk access will be maintained at all times.

• On May 17 and May 18, the contractor will transport welded rail to the work area along Fourth Avenue north of Sixth Street. The rail will be moved from an area near Tenth Street, north on Third Avenue to Seventh Street, west to Fourth Avenue and north through the intersection of Sixth Street. Several segments of rail will be transported each day.

• Officers will be on site to direct traffic at the intersections of Sixth Street at Fourth Avenue and Seventh Street at Fourth Avenue. Motorist should plan for delays.
• On-street parking along Third Street between Tenth and Seventh Streets will not be permitted.
• On-street parking along Seventh Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues will not be permitted.

• On-street parking along Fourth Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh Streets will not be permitted.

• ONGOING: 4th Avenue is closed to vehicular and bicycle traffic between 6th Street and University Boulevard. This closure will be in place for approximately four months.
• Pedestrian access along 4th Avenue will be maintained at all times.

U of A and Health Sciences Center

This area of the project includes 2nd Street to Warren Avenue, the Warren Avenue underpass and a section of Helen Street that connects to the Health Science Center. Traffic control in this area is as follows:

• On Monday, May 14, Second Street will be closed to vehicular and bicycle traffic between Park Avenue and Palm Drive and between Highland and Warren Avenues. This closure will be in place while the contractor completes the removal of the existing roadway, underground utility work, rail placement and installation of the Overhead Conductor System.

• The intersection of Cherry Avenue at Second Street is closed. Signs will be in place to direct motorists around the work area. This intersection closure will be in place through the summer.
• Access to the Second Street garage will be maintained.

• Pedestrian access across Second Street near Highland Avenue will be maintained.

• On Monday, May 14, First Street will be converted to two-way travel between Mountain and Campbell Avenues. This conversion helps facilitate traffic flow during Second Street construction activities.

• On Wednesday, May 16, Martin Avenue will be converted to two-way travel between First and Second Streets, and Second Street will be converted to two-way travel between Warren and Martin Avenues. These conversions will help facilitate traffic flow during Second Street construction activities.
• Palm Drive access at 2nd Street remains open, with easy access from Speedway Boulevard by taking Mountain Avenue to 2nd Street and heading west to Palm Drive.

Officials managing the streetcar construction told the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee on Wednesday that the Luis G. Gutierrez bridge, which will connect the area west of I-10 with Downtown Tucson, will be open to bikes and pedestrians in July.

The streetcar team told the BAC that the Santa Cruz Path will reopen at the same time.

Other tidbits from their presentation:

• There are no bike hooks on the cars but there is space for bikes on each car.
• The construction is scheduled to take 475 days total.
• They are working on the segments with straight rails.

Officer elections

The BAC re-elected Ian Johnson as chair of the committee. He told the BAC that he felt like he was figuring out how to run the committee and was looking forward to continuing to work toward making bicycling an attractive option for everyone.

Improved crossing

The BAC passed a motion requesting the RTA or streetcar team to fund a bicycle crossing signal at 5th Street and Euclid Avenue, which would create an alternate route for cyclists into the University. It would allow cyclists to avoid riding on University Boulevard once the streetcar is up and running.