Tempe Bicycle Action Group

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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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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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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This morning, a fantastic team of TBAG volunteers and more got together to host a bicycling event at Kyrene de la Mariposa, a kindergarten through fifth-grade school that is a pilot school for introducing Safe Routes to School in the Phoenix area. We don’t have a final count on how many kids participated, but a lot of folks turned out and the event was a whole lot of fun for everyone involved.

Volunteers first helped to set up two bike rodeo courses, one for the younger kids and one for the older kids. Meanwhile, the kids completed a fun run around the school and surrounding park. When the kids returned, they got fitted for new helmets and had a chance to embellish them with all kinds of fun decorations. My personal favorites were a girl who attached a small turtle to her helmet, very much like the turtle on the helmet of TBAG board member Ryan, and another girl who added a pink hippopotamus and a mini-bouquet of roses to hers.

Once the kids were helmeted, they headed over to the bike rodeo courses to practice important safety concepts that they need to know to ride on roadways. I helped guide the kindergarten through third grade kids through practice with leaving the driveway, using hand signals, riding straight while looking back, stopping quickly, avoiding dangerous dogs, and dodging roadway debris. The kids had such a great time they were begging to repeat and practice the exercises.

After the safety rodeos, everyone was ready to put their skills to the test, so we reassembled for a short bike ride. Ryan, riding a tallbike, led the ride, and it was incredible to see so many kids forming a huge bicycling parade. Upon returning to the school, we held a raffle for two kids’ bicycles donated by REI, and gave prizes to the kids for completing the ride and safety events.

The whole event was a great lead-up to our next planned event at the school, on Earth Day, April 22, which is Bike to Work and School Day, where we’ll be encouraging families and kids to ride on in to school!

Many thanks to all of our TBAG volunteers, who helped make the event a tremendous success in so many ways, to the City of Tempe for organizational and logistical help, to Ariel Rodriguez and his team of Recreational Programming students from Arizona State University, and to the parents and staff of Kyrene de la Mariposa for supporting the event.

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Recycle that old bike! Volunteers from Bike Saviours, Rusty Spoke, and Tempe Bicycle Action Group, with the support of both valley REI locations, will be accepting donations of used bikes and bike parts. All three orgs. are 501(c)3 nonprofits and donations are tax-deductable. Donated bikes and parts will benefit Bike Saviours and Rusty Spoke, local community based non-profit bike programs that teach anyone to build and maintain their own bike. REI will also be giving a 15% off coupon to each person who donates.

Saturday April 3rd, 9am-4pm
REI Tempe and Paradise Valley

Bike Saviours Info

Tempe REI Event Page

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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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Tempe Shows it’s Easy & Fun to be Green
Tempe Green Street Party (GreenBuild 09)
Tues 11/10, 6-9PM
Downtown – Mill Ave. & more…
Tempe will host a wide variety of activities to showcase the community’s green side, including:
Market on Mill and Green Scene
Desert Doghouse (Teen Design Competition)
ASU Art Museum (Defining Sustainability exhibit)
Music on Mill
Drinks and Discussion at the following locations:
-La Bocca Pizzeria & Wine Bar – 699 S. Mill Ave.
-Studio 5C – 200 E. Fifth St.
-House of Tricks- 114 E. Seventh St.
-Pho Thang Long – 414 S. Mill Ave.
Valley Art Theater will showcase: No Impact Man
Nov. 6 – 12
showtimes: 2 p.m., 4:10 p.m., 6:20 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
more details available at:
www.destinationtempe.com
Contact: Tanya Chavez
tanya_chavez@tempe.gov
TBAG & Bike Saviours will be tabling together during this event.
Stop by & say hi, on your way over to join the CRAP ride at
7:30pm @ Tempe Beach Park (Meet & Mill & Rio Salado)

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