‘Complex intersection’ gets innovative infrastructure

Cyclists riding through the new Starr Pass Boulevard and Mission Road intersection will encounter several new road treatments for bikes, some of which haven’t been utilized in Tucson before.

Construction on the RTA project started in August 2010 and will cost about $2 million.

“It is a pretty complex intersection, but we got pretty decent bike facilities in there,” the city’s bicycle and pedestrian program manager, Tom Thivener said.

Check out the video and photos below to see what riding through the intersection looks like.

The most innovative piece of infrastructure occurs when cyclists are heading north on Mission Road. Now two lanes of traffic make a right turn and merge onto eastbound Starr Pass Boulevard.

“It is kind of like a freeway off-ramp when you are coming north on Mission,” Thivener said. “Instead of having them cross over two lanes doing an awkward shoulder check we pull them off.”

Cyclists who want to merge onto Starr Pass Boulevard from Mission Road continue in the bike lane. Cyclists who want to continue north on Mission Road actually turn right on to a concrete bike path.

A sign on the path shows cyclists the proper direction to ride. The path hooks cyclists around so that they can see oncoming traffic and cross the two lanes that are merging onto Starr Pass Boulevard from Mission Road.

Cyclists pull up to the road to check for a break in traffic.

Once a cyclist crosses the two lanes of traffic they merge back onto Mission Road heading north.

This cyclist actually continued on the sidewalk.

Cyclists riding the opposite direction (south on Mission Road  to head east on Starr Pass Boulevard) will have to use a crosswalk to access bike lanes on the other side of the two lanes merging from Mission Road.

The same is true for cyclists already heading east on Starr Pass Boulevard.

The city added a shared-use path parallel to the two lanes of traffic merging from Mission Road. Thivener said the shared use path allows easy access to the Santa Cruz River Path.

I made a mistake here. I should have continued to the shared use path that you can see along the side of the road after using the crosswalk.

Cyclists eventually merge back into traffic, but are provided a buffer while merging. You can see the buffer at the top of this photo.

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