Rider of the Week returns

February 23, 2012 • Posted by: Michael McKisson

Amber Perry was hesitant to become a Rider of the Week because her bike was looking a little beat up after a few crashes.

The University of Arizona senior, double majoring in molecular and cellular biology and Spanish, says she has crashed a few times on the trolley tracks and once with another bike, so the crashes have led to a rough looking bike.

It’s the trolley tracks and the cracked roads that frustrate Perry the most while riding around on the older Schwinn bicycle her father handed down to her.

“I get butterflies in my stomach when I cross the cracks,” she says.

She says one of her favorite things about riding in Tucson is the Tuesday Night Bike Ride and although she goes less frequently because of her schedule, she enjoys the different routes and the people.

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Yep

kind of cute

3wheeler

ZZ, yep, the money pit will just continue to swallow up vast sums of money until the tracks are torn out by people sick of footing the bill. I don't know when that'll be, but it's inevitable.

The improvement nobody asked for: The modern street car. There have been a number of articles recently concerning aspects of this project - financial, tranportational, developmental and residential. Not too many businesses procede with their development if the financial outlook is deemed 'iffy' at best. Seems good enough for city leaders, though, who aren't investing their own dollars. I spend a good deal of time, mostly cycling, on University Blvd. It has great residential presence; people commuting and socializing. I would say one of the better examples of a 'living street' in Tucson. A PAG feasibility study on development ¼ mile to either side of the street car route is a scary omen to many residents of West University Neighborhood, which stands to be cut right down its center and obliterated outwardly. Could it be the city's view of a living street is to kill it first, then remake it in its own or someone else's image? Transit-oriented development is a catchphrase of the Urban Overlay District - a rezoning that is about to be considered (approved) by the city for the area just west of the UA campus. "Transit" as far as a street car runs through it, but transportational, how? The street car gets the street and one of the Speedway pedestrian underpasses remade especially for it. The city has hinted that it could provide another parking deck for cars on Tyndall near First St. That and the one on Second St, at Euclid and Fourth St. at Euclid. And at the public meetings concerning the rezoning it's always stated,"....and bicycles and pedestrians." There may be at some point something thrown in the mix for them. I think bikes will just have to get around the best they can amidst the obstacles placed in their way, and they will because they are the best way to get around. For those so inclined, the city council's decision next Tuesday on the Urban Overlay District's rezoning aspects could be worthwhile. This hurriedly-put-together zoning structure was mainly to meet Campus Aquisition's time-line for a 14-story private dorm. Campus Aquisitions is a Chicago-based developer with no connection to the UA - as its name might be inferred by some.