Tempe Bicycle Action Group

Spring is well underway, so it’s time for another expedition to the farmer’s market! This will be a leisurely ride down to the Phoenix Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. Let me know if you think you’ll be there.

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As some of you may know, TBAG has been involved in getting Bike!Art! nights established on Thursdays from 6-9 pm over at the Bike Saviours (University and Roosevelt, just behind Sunset Clothing Exchange; all are welcome to drop in for a visit). The goal of these nights is to provide the space and materials to inspire artists to turn old bike parts into art – bike parts that can no longer be used to fix up bicycles.

Over the last several weeks, a couple of key instigators have been putting this time to good use, constructing bike-part flowers as a fundraiser for a community garden project that is getting underway behind the co-op.

The first set of flowers were put up for sale last Saturday, at the Mitchell Park Art on the Fence art sale, and raised an impressive $165 for the garden in under 2 hours! The garden project organizers have been working hard to raise a total of $250, the amount needed to submit their plans to the City of Tempe. They plan to continue making and selling the bike art flowers in the upcoming weeks to reach this goal. If you would like to get involved in any way, please contact Valerie at valeriemroy@mac.com; beyond gardening, there will be all sorts of other opportunities: educational, outreach, and of course, more art.

Round 1 of Bike Part Flowers

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Hey there fella, put down that razor! It’s time to abandon cultural dignity, find your dormant masculinity, and display it to the world via follicular prowess!

This Third Friday, March 19th, TBAG is hosting a MOUSTACHE RIDE. A true ‘handlebar’ happy hour, if you will.

“Golly,” You exclaim, “what is a Moustache Ride and how does one participate?”

You’ll need only 2 things: A bike and a glorious moustache.

“Well, I’ve seen moustaches before,” You say, “but how on earth does one obtain such a thing?”

It’s all in these very easy steps:
1. Starting Monday, March 1, abandon shaving.
2. Once your upper lip begins to show signs of growth, you may resume your normal routine, but be sure to leave the area under your nose untouched.
3. Around the middle of March, you may begin to experience a certain feeling of machismo – do not be scared, but embrace this feeling and flaunt it openly to those around you.
4. By and as of the 19th, your face should be clean of any hair about the chin and cheeks, saving only the island upon your upper lip.
5. At 7:30 p.m. we RIDE, and you’ll be able to demonstrate your newly assumed confidence, virility, strength, and all the rest that come attached to the most manly of facial adornments.

Need encouragement? Instructions? Examples of handsomeness? Check out Mustache March, for one, and of course the precedent set by world class men-among-men such as Robert Goulet, Frank Zappa, Wilford Brimley, Yanni, Dr. Phil, and of course Tom Selleck.

Ladies… You are not left out! Please, join us on this ride. You’ll be offered a variety of quite natural looking and classy fake moustaches from which to choose! Come early for best selection, but have no fear, we shall not run out. You’ll be so surprised and at ease after only a few minutes of sporting your new lip buddy, that you may well choose to retain it for daily use.

The Ride meets, as always, at Tempe Beach Park, Rio Salado & Mill at 7:00 p.m., rolls at 7:30.

Ready? Let’s get started, shall we?

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Once again, a third Friday is upon us!

Tempe Bicycle Action Group will host another Social gathering of Bicycles this Third Friday of February.

Don your most dapper casuals for the Valley’s First Tweed Ride, commencing at seven o’clock in the evening from Tempe Beach Park at Rio Salado & Mill Avenue. We’ll have a jaunt up and about south Scottsdale and finish with a pint at the British Open Pub.

Proper attire is requested; may we suggest your favorite woolens – skirts, capes, and shawls for the ladies and jackets, bow ties, sweater vests, caps, and of course knickers for the gents. Houndstooth, corduroy, and argyle are welcome… but TWEED is KING!

I dare say one shan’t have too difficult a time finding ideas for this fashionable event, but here are a few places you might begin:
Catcubed | A Tweed Primer
Dashing Tweeds blog
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed Tweed Ride 2009-01-24 Sat – The Tweed Run I
Divine Caroline “I Feel the Need … The Need For Tweed”

Or how about some suggestions for haberdashers and clothiers? Well, Sunset Clothing Xchange, right in front of Bike Saviours might be a place to start. Also, Buffalo Exchange, Salvation Army and Goodwill are likely to have an article or two befitting the occasion. Many of these donate a portion of their proceeds to charities and hire an all volunteer staff. And what is greener than recycled clothing?

The particulars:
Tempe Tweed Ride
Friday 19th February, 2010
Meeting at 7 p.m. Tempe Beach Park
Rolling at 7:30!

Tally ho!

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At the end of January, some of the TBAG board members and supporters helped board member Jeremy move house by bicycle. This was our first attempt at something of this nature, and the move was pretty far (6 miles, plus additional miles transporting the trailers), so we used a combination of bicycles plus a pickup truck and a mini-van to get things from one place to another. For this move, we were able to gather up a total of four trailer-type devices, two trailers and a pedicab from the Bike Saviours and one personal trailer.

Getting the trailers ready to go at Bike Saviours

Read the rest of this entry »

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In light of dwindling sales tax revenue, Tempe has been forced to scale back its public transportation service, including aspects of the service that TBAG members strongly advocated for several years ago. There are two rounds of public meetings coming up, where Tempe residents can learn about proposed changes that will take effect in July of 2010, and provide public input. Attending these meetings and providing input sends a message to Tempe’s City Council that public transportation is important, especially for people with limited mobility options. Help shape what public transportation Tempe has, by attending the meetings and voicing your opinion!

More information about the meetings is available through Tempe’s website, here.

Meeting dates:
Round 1:
Tuesday, February 23 @ 6 pm, Don Cassano Room, Tempe Transportation Center
Monday, March 1 @ 6 pm, Pyle Adult Recreation Center, 655 E. Southern Ave.

Round 2:
Monday, March 29 @ 6 pm, Pyle Adult Recreation Center
Tuesday, March 30 @ Don Cassano Room

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With all of the budgetary problems faced by cities and the state of Arizona, it’s often easy to lose track of good things that are still happening. As you may know, members of TBAG sit in on Tempe’s Multi-Modal Transportation Planning and Project Review Committee, where we learn about the Capital Improvement Projects happening in Tempe. These projects tend to take a long time to go from initial ideas to construction (years!), but they represent Tempe’s long-term investment in bicycling infrastructure. They also tend to receive a lot of federal funding, including funds from the Economic Stimulus Bill, so they have not been as severely impacted by budgetary cuts as a lot of the city’s operations. Stay tuned for news about the budget cut impacts, as they are going to have a huge effect on public transit in Tempe, and direct public involvement will be valuable for what the changes will look like.

To give you an idea of what’s going on behind-the-scenes, here’s a brief summary list of some of the current projects, and what’s going on with them:

1. College Ave. Streetscape: this project is getting close to construction. There were some design challenges that cropped up not too long ago, that mean more construction than originally intended, but you can expect to see construction beginning sometime around June.
2. Broadway Road Streetscape: This project was initially going to involve renovation of the section of Broadway Road between Mill and Rural, to decrease the number of vehicular traffic lanes so the road would have 4 car lanes (2 in either direction), a center turn lane, and a bike lanes. Then the idea of expanding the streetscape all the way to Priest came up, and further studies have indicated that the expansion is feasible and will happen. We don’t have exact dates yet, but you can spread the word: Broadway is getting bike lanes.
3. Western Canal: This one’s really exciting, and perhaps you’ve already been riding along the freshly constructed portions of the Western Canal. Tempe is just about ready to officially open the newly paved canal, which features some really cool covered pathways that provide protection from nearby golf courses, and which will feature two HAWK crossings. Here’s some more information about the crossings from Tempe In Motion. TBAG is really excited about this canal development, and will be organizing some rides to check it out in the upcoming months. You will notice, if you ride this canal, that there’s currently no way to get across I-10 on the western edge, or across the 101 on the eastern edge. If we want to be able to cross the freeways, we are going to have to speak up about that.
4. Crosscut Canal: Not a lot of people actually know where this canal runs, but it’s a canal that runs north-south through Papago Park. The north end of the canal is currently paved, and connects up to the Arizona Canal. The second phase of this project will involve paving the southern stretch so the canal will link up to the Mill Avenue/Washington intersection. That’s right, a connection that runs northeast across the park, taking you from downtown Tempe almost all the way to downtown Scottsdale. You can check out maps of the project, and provide feedback/support, here. Currently, the details for the bridge crossings are getting straightened out, and so soon you should start to see construction happening.
5. Tempe Town Lake Bike/Ped Bridge: Rio Salado Operations is overseeing the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian bridge that will run across the western dam of Tempe Town Lake. We got to check out some of the artist concept drawings (pretty!), and it sounds like this project is going to move ahead in the next couple of months as well.

Tempe has also assembled a map of all of the projects in progress. Check it out!

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It’s been almost a year in the making, and I must apologize for not making it happen sooner, but bicycle education is finally happening in Tempe. On February 20th, 2010, 10am-3pm we will host a League of American Bicyclists Traffic Skills 101 Express course at The Bicycle Cellar.

What: This shortened* 5 hour comprehensive course taught by a League of American Bicyclists certified League Cycling Instructor will give you the confidence you need to ride safely and legally in traffic or on the trail. The course covers vehicular cycling concepts, equipment safety checks, on-bike skills and crash avoidance techniques and includes a student manual. Recommended for adults and children above age fourteen, this fast-paced course prepares cyclists for a full understanding of vehicular cycling. A bicycle in working order & a helmet are required. Please come prepared to ride at least 5 miles, part of the hands on portion is parking lot drills and a road test. If you cannot afford to purchase a helmet, don’t worry, we will have free helmets the day of the course.

When: February 20th, 2010, 10am – 3pm
Where: The Bicycle Cellar @ Tempe Transportation Center
200 E. 5th Street, Tempe AZ 85281
@ the Veteran’s Way / College Avenue METRO stop
Why: So you can become a safer, more confident cyclist
Who: Presented by Tempe Bicycle Action Group & The Bicycle Cellar
$$$$: $10 payable the day of the course to cover student manual printing fees & venue cost, if you legitimately cannot afford this simply let us know and we can waive the fee.

Pre-registration is required, please do so here.

* The TS101 course is normally 9 hours long, we will be omitting certain material which we feel is best suited to individual learning or available from other local organizations, including:
“Bicycle Nomenclature/Selection/Fit”
“Bicycle Maintenance”
“Bicycle Clothing”

For additional information on the League of American Bicyclists and their education programs, visit http://www.bikeleague.org.

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The Bicycle Cellar is staying open until 2 a.m. on New Years Eve, Dec. 31 to offer special valet bike parking for $5 per bike. The fee includes access to secure, indoor bicycle parking, restrooms and a changing area to freshen up. The Bicycle Cellar is located at the Tempe Transportation Center, Fifth Street and College Avenue in downtown Tempe.

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You knew it was coming up… it’s the third Friday of the month and that means TBAG is having another group ride!

This Friday, December 18, dig a handsome, festive-themed sweater outta Mom’s closet and join us for a yuletide ride.

We’ll drink eggnog & cider, sing Christmas carols, and make merry on bicycles while looking for the best Hanukkah & Christmas light displays, just like you did when you were little. And since this is a night time ride, and a Friday, we’ll end the night with some hot toddy’s & winter ales at a warm, cozy, lodge-type place. I’m thinking ‘The Lodge’.

Meet at Tempe Beach Park, 7:30 pm, ride departs at 7:45.

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