The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) has issued a draft report reviewing bike and pedestrian crash data in Maricopa county in order to develop appropriate countermeasures. Please email me at aar...@biketempe.org if you’d like a copy to review. Comments are due on November 15th.

TBAG recently had our first major volunteer meeting on March 24 at 7 pm at Boulders on Broadway.- thank you to all who attended and agreed to help on projects. We divided into four groups to brainstorm and plan programs to work on over the next six months or so. Click below for a quick summary of what was discussed and contact information if you want to get involved. It was great to see so many bikers excited to make a difference!

The Routes, Rides and Clinics Committee developed a handful of ideas for programs in the next few months. Individuals volunteered to lead some roadie training rides, beginner roadie group rides, and women’s beginner mountain bike clinic/ride. We’re planning to collaborate with Bicycle Saviours on some of their programs, including clinics. We also plan to connect with ASU to set up some informal bicycle commuter clinics, as well as to get on the docket to provide bicycle safety instruction to students during orientation. Also look for a possible upcoming trailer-building workshop and Bike Polo 101 workshop. Kate coordinated this committee, and she can be reached at Kate at biketempe.org.

The City Coordination/Advocacy Program Priorities group developed a list of three major priorities:

1. Bicycle friendly business program:
Goal: Develop and implement a program to encourage retailers and other businesses to support bicycling. The program is currently in the planning stages (steps: developing criteria for businesses, establishing benefits, implementation, promotion), and the group plans to meet again in upcoming months to shape the program, which we hope to have underway in the next three months.
2. Safety/mapping development:
Near-term project: Map recent accident report data to publicize high-accident areas and help with prioritizing bicycle-related planning projects. Once accident data has been received from the City (we’re waiting to hear from the Tempe Police), group members with expertise in this area will meet and work on map development.
3. Publicity and Education:
Publicity: TBAG seeks to respond to stories in the local news to represent cyclists’ perspectives by writing letters to editors and press-releases.
Publicizing City Programs: Efforts are underway to make all previous Bike Plans (1974-2000) available as downloadable .pdfs through the TBAG website
Education: Start a campaign to re-educate drivers and cyclists about cyclists’ rights on the road. In particular, we may start a lawn-sign campaign that helps spread a particular message in support of bicycling.

Rebecca coordinated this group, and she can be reached at Rebecca at biketempe.org

The Social Events Committee discussed several different types of events to help bring the bicycle community together in Tempe. We plan to continue with the bicycle themed movie nights at Boulders on Broadway, showing one film every other month or so. On alternate months, we plan to host handlebar happy hour events, touring the local happy hours by bicycle as we have done in the past. We also had several great ideas for new events, such as an annual charity event when we would team up with a local charity and invite the bicycle community to participate in a fundraiser. We discussed teaming up with the local Big Brothers/ Big Sisters group for their annual bowling fundraiser. Another idea that was popular with the whole group was a possible bike ride to the Scottsdale drive in theater.
Mark is heading up this committee, and you can contact him at Mark at biketempe.org for more information or to help out with social events.

The final committee was the Bicycle Give Away committee. TBAG recently entered into a partnership with the City of Tempe whereby all bicycles that are left on city buses (surprisingly this happens often) are donated to TBAG. Our plan is to refurbish these bikes, outfit them with the essentials (helmet, locks, lights) and then donate them to individuals in need of a bicycle for transportation. We have developed a relationship with COAR, a refugee relocation organization, based here in Phoenix to provide bikes that they can distribute to families in need. This program is just getting off the ground, but our hope is to expand the program in the future to work with other groups that could use bikes – stay tuned for more!
Stan coordinates this committee. Contact him at Stan at biketempe.org.

If you have interest in helping out, contact us! We plan to have another meeting in a month or so to see how progress is going on these programs. To get email reminders of events such as this, sign up for our spam-free moderated email list by clicking here!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the meeting!

The City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department has an interesting report available on their website that summarizes bicycle/vehicle collisions for 2005. The 20 page report is full of statistics on things such as the demographics of bicycle collision victims, helmet usage, and timing of accidents.

The report summary:

2005 FACTS AT A GLANCE – BICYCLE CRASHES
In 2005…
…just over 28% of all bicyclists involved in crashes were children below the age of 18.
…the bicyclist was listed as the primary AT FAULT party twice as often as the motorist.
…there were 4 times more male bicyclists involved in crashes than female bicyclists.
…there were 107 bicyclists (22%) hit while riding on sidewalks.
…there were 17 crashes involving alcohol, 14 in which the bicyclists had been drinking and 3 in which the driver had been drinking.
…there were 85 hit and run collisions (which also may have been alcohol‐related) in which the vehicle left the scene.
…there were 367 bicyclists (75%) hit during the daytime and 120 bicyclists (25%) hit at night.

Some of these statistics are rather surprising – specifically, that bicyclists were found to be “at fault” for the collision twice as often as the motorist is counter to my experiences on the roads of Phoenix and surrounding areas. From the report, it is clear that there are way too many sidewalk and wrong-way riding cyclists out there so perhaps the statistics are biased by them? Or perhaps the cops tend to favor drivers over riders when determining fault?

I think it is also important to note that the report only takes into account police and ADOT data for accidents that involve injuries or significant property damage:

Collision data used for this report was obtained through Phoenix Police records and the database maintained by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) known as ALISS (Accident Location Identification and Surveillance System).

The ALISS database includes crashes between bicycles and motor vehicles that occurred on public right of way where someone was injured or killed or where property damage exceeded $1000. Crashes that occurred on private property, or that did not involve injuries or significant property damage were not included. Bicycle falls or crashes on sidewalks or streets that did not involve a motor vehicle are similarly not included in the statewide ALISS crash database.

So, all those close calls and run-ins that every frequent cyclist is all too familiar with are not reflected in the city’s report.

On a positive note, the report indicates that bicycle/vehicle collisions are on the decline:

Although the 2005 crash totals are still much too high, they represent a 9% decline from the crash totals in 2004 and a 13% decline in injuries. It was also the lowest number of bicycle crashes since 1992.

I’m curious if the statistics for 2006 are consistent with this trend?

So, give the 2005 Phoenix Bicycle Collision Summary a read and let us know what you think of the statistics by leaving a comment.

Thanks to Rebecca for bring the report to our attention.