Tempe Bicycle Action Group

From the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists:

The vehicle is described as a gold or ash colored Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable, and has damage to the front and passenger side. The collision occured Saturday night at the intersection of Southern and Rural Road in Tempe.

AZCentral story here

Our heartfelt condolences to Jason Scott’s family in the wake of this tragedy.

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TBAG Third Fridays presents:
The MULLET RIDE

Show your redneck pride! Get out the Aquanet and peroxide and freshen up your do. This month we’re heading over to the glitzy McDowell strip to sample some of the swankiest dives in east Phoenix.

We’ll be a stone’s throw from the light rail our entire route, so if you need to check out early no worries.

What to wear – jean cutoffs, tank tops, western-checked shirts – NO SLEEVES. Show your sweet farmer’s tan, the ladies love this stuff. If you feel like your tresses ain’t golden or curly enough to roll with the best, you can find wigs at places like Fun Services Party Store, Mardi Gras Costumes, or even at your local Goodwill.

MEET at Tempe Beach Park on Friday July 16th at 7:30 p.m. We’ll roll out at 7:45. Bring lights and locks

This is a 21+ event, y’all bring your ID! Also, we’ll be in traffic and it’s real important everybody exercises safe behavior.

Be sure to RSVP to the facebook event here.

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TBAG will have a bike themed booth at this year’s ASU Family Fun Day on Saturday July 10th.

You can read about it here and the summary is below.

Saturday Jul 10, 2010
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: Free

What moves you? How do you get from one place to another? Walking, driving a car, riding a bike and traveling by train are all ways to move from here to there. This exhibition highlights these and other modes of transportation in paintings, sculpture and prints. Hands-on activities throughout the exhibition will get your imagination moving, too!

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From Eric Iwersen:

The bicycling community came together recently to honor two cyclists killed in separate, unrelated accidents in Tempe during May. Chris Volpe was killed May 10 when he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bike at University Drive and Ash Avenue. A week later, bicyclist Jay Fretz was struck and killed at the intersection of McClintock and Alameda drives.

Memorials for each of the cyclists included installation of a “ghost bike” – a bicycle that has been painted solid white – near each of the accident locations. A well-known practice by cycling communities internationally, the ghost bike serves as both a memorial and a reminder of the potential dangers bike riders face.

City of Tempe staff have been working together with the bicycling community for decades to make Tempe a bicycle-friendly community. Following these two accidents, members of the Tempe Bicycle Action Group and other bicycling advocates have contacted city staff and elected officials to express concern and advocate for continued efforts to increase bicycle safety.

Tempe encourages community members to participate in planning bicycle facilities and outreach efforts, and has a number of ways people can be involved, including the Transportation Commission, which is comprised of Tempe residents (several of whom are bicyclists), and the Commission’s Multi-modal Planning Committee to facilitate community dialogue and input on bicycle/pedestrian projects and issues.

Over the last 14 years – since passage of Tempe’s transit tax – the city has emphasized multi-modalism and creating a balanced transportation system with connectivity between transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Improvements include on-street bicycle lanes, multi-use paths, streetscape and traffic calming projects. Tempe now has more than 170 miles of bikeways throughout the city.

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This is somewhat late notice for tonight’s meeting, but better late than never, right?

There are two important upcoming public meetings for transportation projects in Tempe. The more people who attend these meetings and provide public comment, the more clear it becomes that the City should keep supporting bicycling projects. The one tonight is a big one, for a road for which many people have asked over the years, “Why doesn’t it have a bike lane?” Well, it’s getting one, that’s right, it’s BROADWAY, from Rural all the way to Priest. That’s right, you will soon be able to ride your bike down a bike lane on Broadway to get to Boulders on Broadway.

Main info page here: http://www.tempe.gov/tim/Traffic/broadwayroad.htm (LOTS of info, plus a public comment form, too!)
Meeting: TONIGHT (June 7), 6 pm, Don Cassano Community Room, Tempe Transportation Center, 200 E. Fifth Street

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Also, there will be public meetings for another huge project, called the “Tempe South” project. This is part of the general regional project that brought us the light rail. It doesn’t stop there, oh no it doesn’t! That’s right, there will be some sort of link down to the south, to bring mass transit to even more of the masses. A lot of Tempe residents should be getting postcards and door hangers from the City to encourage participation.

Valley Metro has the scoop on their website: http://www.valleymetro.org/metro_light_rail/future_extensions/tempe/

The Tempe public meeting will be Wednesday, June 16, 2010
6:00–8:00 p.m
Pyle Adult Recreation Center (that’s by the library)
655 E. Southern Ave., Tempe

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We have received word of a second bicyclist fatality, and would like to request any and all help in spreading the word and gathering relevant information about the accident. This accident has not yet received any media coverage. On Monday, May 17, at roughly 6:30 pm, Jay Fretz was at the intersection of Alameda and McClintock where he was struck by an SUV driver who did not see him. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital. He is survived by his wife and five-year-old daughter.

Update: We sent out a press release and got some media coverage for both incidents including an article on azcentral and ABC 15. The family along with TBAG and Bike Saviours are installing a ghost bike in memory of Jay this weekend. Meet at Bike Saviours at 10am on Saturday May 29th. We’ll ride to to the site of the accident at Alameda and McClintock. Here are a few shots of the ghost bike preparations:

Click here for more photos of the ghost bike by Ryan Guzy

We will update this post again after the memorial.

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On Monday, May 10, 2010, a bicyclist named Chris Volpe was struck by a motorist at the intersection of University and Ash, and was killed. In the face of this tragic event, members of the Tempe bicycling community gathered together with members of Chris’s family to prepare and install a ghost bike at the intersection. As described on their website, ghosbikes.org, ghost bikes are intended to be small, somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street.

Photograph courtesy of Patrick Leahy at http://patrickleahy.smugmug.com/

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Movie Lovers! Bike Riders! We know how much you love doing your two favorite things.

No longer will you have to balance that heavy film projector on your handle bars. No more extension cords & generators needed for your Blu-Ray player & flat panel! Hey, you don’t even have to watch the movie alone as you would on other lonely Friday nights!

Thats’ right, it’s time for another TBAG 3rd Friday BIKE to the DRIVE-IN!

Eyes straining to enjoy the tiny lcd on your iPhone? Why, they’ve got screens, big as a house! And no less tham 6 of ‘em for crying out loud!

Sound? Only the highest quality, stereo reproduction – on your very own portable FM radio! YOU DECIDE how loud!

Forget about the RedBox, these guys give you TWO movies for the price of ONE!

MEET
At Tempe Beach Park, 6:30 pm on Friday May 21st. We ride at 7 pm, first showtime is at 8.
The ride is a short 3.5 mile easy cruise to the West Wind Scottsdale 6, located at 8101 E McKellips in Scottsdale.

Stick around for both movies or only one, riders will be escorted back to Tempe after the credits roll.

What to bring: A BIKE, a blanket (trust us, it gets cold out there after dark), Lights, Cash, and an FM Radio.

What to leave: Flip flops, pets, crying children, and petrol-guzzling engines!

Recommended extras: A tire patch kit & pump, a beachball or frisbee, camp chair, footie pajamas, water. Whatever else you want to pack!

We ALWAYS get asked the question, “What’s showing?” The answer is – don’t worry, we’ll decide when we get there! Remember, this ride is more about the fun of being on a bike at the movies and having a great time. After all, the best drive-in movies are the corniest, right? But if you’re burning to know… check westwinddriveins.com for the latest updates. We’ll throw some ideas out there as we get closer.

See you then!

edit:
Something we learned from past rides and would be good to consider this time – gather the admission money before arriving and have one person pay. This will save a huge amount of time for all to get through the box office!

Update! Here are the showtimes for Friday, May 21, 2010

Double Features (all shows start at 8:15):
Shrek Forever After (PG) w/ How to Train Your Dragon (PG)

MacGruber (R) w/ A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (R)

Iron Man 2 (PG-13) w/ How to Train Your Dragon (PG)

Letters to Juliet (PG) w/ Date Night (PG-13)

Robin Hood (PG-13) w/ Clash of the Titans (PG-13)

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Thanks to all of the volunteers that helped with April Bike Month. We had five successful events thanks to all of your help: Bike Saviours/REI Bike Drive, Mariposa Elementary Bike Rodeo, 1st Annual TBAG Bike to BBQ, Bike to Work and School Day, and the Great Bike Chase. We also saw the launch of PHXBAG(or BikePHX, or PHXBike, help decide the name!) with a First Fridays Bike Valet at the beginning of the month, and Bicycle Awareness Party at the end of the month.

Bike Saviours and Rusty Spoke collected over 75 used bikes with the help of both Valley REI locations. Both organizations would like to thank those who donated, and REI for supporting and hosting the event.

The Mariposa Elementary Bike Rodeo was also a big success with lots of kids in attendance learning to ride safely. Click here for a full recap.

It was great seeing everyone at the BBQ, we had a great turnout for our first event of this kind. We had families riding around the town lake in the morning, mountain bike rides throughout the day, and then the bike polo crew showed up in the afternoon to help us finish off the burgers and kegs. This event replaced Tempe’s Bike-a-Palooza event that was canceled due to budget cuts. TBAG will be taking a larger role hosting grassroots cycling events like this to get people to come out and have fun on their bikes.

Bike to Work and School Day gets better every year. This year we had volunteers at 7 free breakfast locations around Tempe talking to fellow bike commuters. The volunteers from each location also led rides to the Tempe Transit Center. Mariposa Elementary also promoted bike to school day for their students, there were over 100 kids that biked to school that day and we had volunteers on hand to promote cycling, safety, and fun.

The Great Bike Chase is a long standing Valley Metro event, but budget cuts increase the need for volunteer help. TBAG volunteers set up a DIY screen printing booth at Hance Park and helped people print their own bike and bike month t-shirts. Volunteers also helped with ride marshaling and bike valet parking at a Diamondbacks game. You’ll see the DIY screen printing at many of our upcoming events.

Thanks again to the volunteers, you are what makes TBAG a successful organization helping to promote cycling in Tempe and around the Valley.

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