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.

Join fellow cyclists and cycling organizations, who will be riding from different Valley locations to Tempe Town Lake to demonstrate support for legislative change towards improving cycling safety, simpler law/legal enforcement, and honoring cyclists lost and injured in 2010 – like Jay Fretz of Tempe. Donations towards the event will go to help Jay’s wife and daughter. More information can be found at the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=153406971363892 and at http://www.notonemorecyclist.com/

Erik Ryberg’s blog, TusconBikeLawyer.com should be on every cyclist’s daily visit list. I wanted to share one recent post in particular with everyone here in the Valley. In “You want to get a ticket or dontcha” Erik discusses what he sees are serious shortcomings in the Tuscon Police Department’s policies toward bicyclists who have been involved in a collision with a motor vehicle. In the absence of a serious injury to the cyclist Erik warns of the consequences of a report not being taken by the police. Erik states:

If the officer determines the cyclist was at fault, he will then often give the cyclist a choice: you can leave here and forget about all this, or you can stay and get a ticket. Which do you pick?

Erik’s post tells the full story, but the moral is, always request a report be filed even if the officers determine you were at fault and “Take the Ticket” as it can be immensely helpful to your legal case! Read Erik’s post here.