Tempe Bicycle Action Group

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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As described in an earlier update, the City of Tempe has been wrapping up construction along the Western Canal. Part of the Canal development has included the installation of two HAWK signals, the first such signals in Tempe. HAWK stands for High-Intensity Activated CrossWalk, and is a style of road crossing developed in Tucson. See this page for information about HAWKs, as well as the other specialized crossings found in Tucson.

The two crossings in Tempe are located on Rural Road at the Western Canal, and on McClintock Drive at the canal. The City is providing a pamphlet that describes how the HAWK signals work, available through the Tempe In Motion website, and wants to spread the word as much as possible. If you have had experiences with either of these crossings and would like to share, feel free to leave comments here. We’d love to hear if these seem like an effective system for making canal crossings safer and more efficient, and if we should be encouraging more Phoenix-area municipalities to install them.

From a bicyclist or pedestrian standpoint, the crossings change to a “walk” signal within a few seconds of pressing the button, and are designed to force cars to slow down and stop whenever someone needs to cross the street. At other times, they allow cars to pass through freely.

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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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The last City of Tempe Multi-Modal Committee reviewed current and upcoming projects in an effort to prioritize them in the case of budget reductions. If you’d like to give input to the discussion, send along your thoughts on the following list of projects. How would you rank them in importance? The projects are:

Rio Salado Multi-Use Path Tempe to Phoenix
University Dr. Streetscape Improvements
Hardy Rd. Streetscape Improvements
I-10 Bike/Ped Bridge Crossing at Alameda

Do send your thoughts I will be sure to incorporate them into TBAG’s message at the upcoming committee this Wednesday. Thanks!

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From the Tempe Newsroom listserve:

For Immediate Release
10/6/2009

Tempe residents are encouraged to attend one of three public meetings to learn more about potential route changes to the existing Orbit neighborhood circulator and fixed route arterial bus systems. The purpose of these meetings is to gather ideas from neighbors and get input on potential route changes that may occur in January and/or July 2010.

The scope of the proposed route changes has been expanded to include the majority of the arterial bus route system in Tempe. These proposed changes are due in large part to the slowing economy. The Tempe transit system is funded primarily by a half cent sales tax, which has dramatically decreased causing Tempe to reevaluate the transit system to make it more efficient in order to reduce costs. Passengers and residents are able to comment online beginning Oct. 28. at www.tempe.gov/tim. The same information will be presented at all three meetings. Meetings will occur:

Oct. 28 at 6 p.m.
Pyle Adult Recreation Center
655 E. Southern Ave., Tempe

Nov. 4 at 6 p.m.
Tempe Transportation Center
Don Cassano Community Room
200 E. Fifth St., Tempe

Nov. 7 at 10 a.m.
Tempe Transportation Center
Don Cassano Community Room
200 E. Fifth St., Tempe

For information call (480) 350-2775 or visit www.tempe.gov/tim

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As I drive down the 101 to Chandler somewhat regularly, I became curious as to the small center support pier constructed between Ray & Chandler. I contacted ADOT and they informed me it was indeed for a pedestrian bridge (as I suspected). ADOT built the pier and City of Chandler is building the pedestrian bridge to connect Galveston Road. I spoke with Bill Fay, Public Works Engineer with the City of Chandler, and he informed me that construction is slated for 2015 but there’s a possibility it could be built in 2010. The pier was constructed to Federal Environmental Standards and the city has submitted the bridge project as “Shovel Ready” seeking Federal stimulus funds. Bill also informed me that Arizona Ave is to get bike lanes in a lane narrowing project, and Chandler Blvd is to be widened at the 101 so bike lanes can be installed.

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I had the opportunity to stop by The Bicycle Cellar and talk with John Romero about how things have been going the first week. 17 folks have signed up for a membership in the first 7 days. John’s been doing some improvements to the facility including installation of a lockable retail display, two large work tables, a dual bike workstand, air compressor and a self serve beverage cooler that will work on the honor system. I mentioned to him that it would be a good idea to talk with the City of Tempe about installing an air hose to the outside of the facility so there’s air available for free, 24 hours a day. You can learn more about The Bicycle Cellar at their website or read a recent AZ Central article here.

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What is The Bicycle Cellar you ask? You may know it as the indoor bike parking & locker/shower facility that’s been built and sitting dormant at the Tempe Transportation Center. It’s opening August 24th as “The Bicycle Cellar” and you can learn more about the facility here: http://www.thebicyclecellar.com.

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Some of you may know, or know of Scott Nowicki, one of the founders of Tempe Bicycle Action Group. We recently learned courtesy of a blog post on Tucson Bike Lawyer’s blog that he’s now residing in Boulder City, NV and commutes 23 miles (one way) four days a week to his teaching post at UNLV. The Las Vegas Sun recently profiled Scott, his thoughts on lack of bicycle infrastructure in Vegas and lengthy commute in an article which can be found here.

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When is a bike lane potentially unsafe? When using it puts you at greater risk for a specific type of motorist / bicyclist collision. The dooring collision. In a roadway configuration where the bike lane is between the parking lane and travel lane, traveling in the bike lane often puts you directly in the “door zone”. A dooring collision is where a motorist opens their door into the path of a cyclist approaching from the rear. Cyclists rarely escape injury in a dooring collison. The responsibility here lies with the motorist, laws state they must make sure it’s safe to open their door. When using these bike lanes, of which there are many miles in downtown Tempe, you should take the following precautions.

• The easiest way to avoid a dooring collision is to ride OUTSIDE the door zone. In some cases this will put you out of the bike lane in traffic, but as the mantra goes: Cyclists fare best when they act like, and are treated as drivers of vehicles
• Always watch for movement inside the vehicles parked to your right, if you see movement, be aware and safely* move out of the door zone. An additional action you may wish to perform is ringing a bell if you have one. During the day one can also ride with a front bicycle light in blink mode to potentially increase awareness among occupants in the vehicle.

* safely here means you’ll want to glance over your left shoulder to check if it is safe to move over, signal that you are moving over to the left (arm extended straight out to the left, pointing a finger helps), look once more to be sure it’s safe. Then move over to your left and out of the door zone.

Other dangers of which to be aware: Doorings can happen with cars to your left as well. An example here would be a car that stops in the traffic lane to quickly let a passenger out. I’ve witnessed taxi cabs doing this on Mill Ave when traffic is crawling.

If you happen to be riding in the bike lane and a car door is opened into your path, instinct will likely dictate that you swerve to the left. This can put you directly into the path of a vehicle approaching from your rear or an oncoming vehicle if you can’t regain control and remain left of the center stripe (on an undivided street)!

Ride safe and stay hydrated!

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