I appreciated that call a lot.

It seems the bike was inadvertently installed inside some kind of federally-mandated safety zone and ADOT was compelled to move it, but in the process of moving it they broke the frame. So, they brought it back to their shop for repairs! (This just goes to show what a good a job the installer of this ghost bike did to ensure it didn’t get stolen.)

They will re-install it at a nearby location that does not conflict with their standards.

–Erik Ryberg

–Erik Ryberg

Most of my readers know how excited I am about this. I even visited Bogota, Colombia last year to participate in and learn about their Ciclovia, which to this day is the largest and most impressive in the world. Here in Tucson, ours is just a fledgling operation, but it is going to be a really good start!

I know it is hard to see, but here is the route:

The highlighted streets in the map (Fourth Ave from Congress to Seneca, Seneca to Mountain, Mountain through the University on Highland to University, and then back up to Fourth) will be closed to all motorized traffic on Sunday, April 18 — and thus open to YOU and your family to ride your bike, walk, rollerblade, cartwheel, or do what you do, safely and with all your friends.

Various activities including music, dance, yoga, a climbing wall, and other cool stuff (including bike repair stations) will be found along the route, all free. If you live along the route and want to do your own thing, do so!

We are still looking for sponsors for this awesome event, so if you own a business or work in one that might be interested in showing support for a great event that encourages healthy activity, walking, biking, alternative transportation, and the virtues of living in a culture where it is okay to go outside and meet your neighbors, please consider being a sponsor!

And if you are on facebook, become a fan so we can help get the word out.

The Cyclovia Tucson website (a work in progress, but already quite useful) is at www.cycloviatucson.com.

–Erik Ryberg

Jennifer and Richard Cox were injured in a motor vehicle accident and incurred medical expenses of $25,000.00. They obtained a total of $30,000.00 from the motorist who hit them. They were insured through a state plan. The court ruled that the state could take up to 100 percent of a person’s injury settlement, but not more, to reimburse the state for the medical expenses.

Up until this decision, the normal practice would be that the state would be reimbursed for, at the most, 66 percent of the medical bills under the so-called “common fund” doctrine. The idea of the common-fund doctrine is that because the Coxes had to hire an attorney to get that settlement, and since the state directly benefited from that attorney’s work and would have most likely collected nothing without it, the state should contribute to the attorney fees. Otherwise the attorney is working for the state, for free.

What the common-fund doctrine does is it gives an attorney some incentive to take a case that otherwise wouldn’t pay. Cases like the Cox case, where the medical bills are high and the tortfeasor’s insurance (the torfeasor is the person at fault) is low. The common-fund doctrine lets the victim get an attorney, make at least some recovery, gets the state back most of its money, and pays the attorney.

Without the common-fund doctrine, the attorney has no reason to take the case since he or she will literally be working for free, and possibly for no other reason than to reimburse the state, which can now literally take 100 percent of a victim’s settlement.

I think this is an insane decision that benefits no one except the insurance companies. It is only going to result in the state obtaining less money over the long run, because tort victims are not going to be able to secure representation and there is no way insurance companies are going to pay the state anything if they don’t have to — which they won’t.

And of course the decision hits bicyclists harder than most, because bicyclists (and pedestrians) are much more likely to rack up large medical bills if hit by a car.

The decision does not affect people who are privately insured.

–Erik Ryberg

Monique’s bike was stolen 3-1-10 outside the art building at the U of A. It’s a spray painted brown track bike with a typewriter sticker on the head tube and a sticker that says “my bike takes me places that school never could” on the chainstay. It has drop bars with brown cork tape and two interrupter style tektro brake levers/brakes and a cane creek threadless headset. A black crankset with I think a 48 tooth black chainring. The rear wheel is a black flip flop fixed free hub on a black mavic cxp33 with I think 17 tooth fixed and free. It has wellgo pedals with metal toe clips and one toestrap is missing. Most of the logos are scratched off of the parts. The saddle is made by serfas and it has an origin 8 seatpost. She built this bike herself and really loves it so we’d be really grateful for any information on it’s whereabouts! Also it can be dropped off at Bicas no questions asked!
Any leads can email me ppbageloas@gmail.com or call me at 520-971-9514

Monique has ridden more miles in Mexico City than I have, and she did it on a cooler bike, and even though she weighs 1/3 or less what you do she can stomp you, so dumbass, you would be smart to return that bike asap. Just sayin.

–EBR.

This photo is from the awesome El Grup blog post about their trip last weekend to ride the velodrome down in Hermosillo. They also did a road race.

Why don’t we get to have a velodrome?? Isn’t this supposed to be a gold-star biking city?

Hermosillo’s is 250 meters with a 44 degree bank. Nice.

Maybe South Tucson will get one.

–Erik Ryberg

I am fascinated by the variety of efforts different countries take to encourage cycling. Some countries have national advertising campaigns to promote bicycling; Paris has its celebrated rental bikes; Bogota closes over a hundred miles of its streets every Sunday, and many other South American cities are doing so now as well. Here in the U.S. we are all about trying to carve out a safe place in the streets for bikes. Our efforts center on engineering, but not so much on advertising.

But what is really interesting is the strange attachment between bikes and love that seems to transcend cultures and that generally finds its way into the advertisements. Mexico City has an advertising campaign associating bikes with the heart, and the double-meaning of bicycling being good for your physical and your mental (or romantic) health is made quite apparent. Current bike-culture memes in the U.S. are also saturated with the “bike love” narrative. (One example I like: there is a beautiful stencil outside BICAS that says “Every bike a love affair, every car a murder.”)

It seems that Hungary has taken this theme to its logical conclusion.

–Erik Ryberg

The comment in Danehy’s article (post below) that he would never ride a bike in the street or allow his children to do so because he’s too scared has really stuck in my craw. Mainly it’s the sense of superiority I detect in most of his writing (if you aren’t scared like me then you are obviously stupid) but also it’s because sometimes we have to claim and fight for the things that are important to us. You don’t have to ride down Speedway at rush hour do that, but you do have to be willing to participate in making your city better.

One day soon I hope bicycling in Tucson will take place like it did, and still does, in Amsterdam and Copenahagen. I don’t see any reason why we can’t do that. But we’ll only get there by doing it.

–Erik Ryberg

Leave it BICAS to celebrate the rodeo (for you non-Tucsonans: when the rodeo is in town here, they actually close school — even the community college) by holding a Wild West Ride.

Tucsonbikelawyer has been utterly buried in briefing and court hearings for over a week (you may have noticed the silence on this website) but hopes to have dug his way through to freedom by the time the ride starts.

More info on TucsonVelo.com. Prizes! Bullhorns! Real live historians! Free stickers! Fun!

–Erik Ryberg

I have a hard time paying much attention to a fellow who believes that art should never be publicly funded and who does everything in his power to keep his children from riding a bicycle on the street. He always sounds so cheap and mean to me. However, this is one of his rare pieces that does not attack vegetarians, which I found to be refreshing.

Erik Ryberg