Link roundup: September 26

Edward

@tucsonvelo:disqus Just wanted to let you know that tomorrow evening Arizona Illustrated will talk about bike and streetcar: see 27:26 mark in this video: http://playpbs.azpm.org/video/2284233328

This is our 'poster-boy' intersection used to project the overall image of cycling in Tucson. I think cycling conditions in town need to be a little more focused. I've used the 4th/Fontana boulevard maybe a dozen times seeing another rider (just one) 3 or 4 times. There are well-used routes that are in deplorable condition, so more 'boulevards' do not impress me....as a rider. So maybe we should identify the disconnect between planners and users. Having meetings is not the same thing as listening, as evidenced by the conditions around the street car construction. Ann Chanecka will need support in improving bike conditions here. Let's hope she doesn't have to go as far away as Calgary to get it. Otherwise the only intelligent reason to hold the position will be for resume-building.

Red Star

If you are commenting on "Building an Attractive Cycling Environment in Tucson, Arizona" then yes, the pavement on "bicycle boulevard" 3rd St., west of the lovely photograph, is some of the worst for cyclists to the point of unusable. And immediately east of the costly crossing at 3rd there are congestion and other cyclist, ped, and motorist safety issues that baffle City of Tucson's Engineer Diahn Swartz and City Council member Steve Kozachick's staff to the point of applied indifference.

It's just baffling the things that go unattended to in a town so well-suited for cycling. We've got some great features here, but those features make the neglected basics stand out even more. In my mind, platinum should mean that these things have been aligned.