New bike-safety box at Mountain and Grant
I don’t think this is exactly the most dangerous intersection around, but it’s a high traffic one and it just got a little safer thanks to the City of Tucson. It looks good!
Here’s the message about it I got from Tom Thivener today:
This morning TDOT installed the region’s first green thermoplastic bike lane at the south-east corner of Mountain and Grant. We replaced the faded blue paint with the thermoplastic material. The thermoplastic should hold up well and has a shiny look thanks to thousands of glass beads that are embedded into the material. The beads also helps to make the material slip resistant. The feds are now recommending green over blue for visibility reasons and also because blue is used for other purposes such as for handicap parking. Anyway, it looks beautiful. Thanks to Streets, Traffic Engineering, Flint Trading and Speedy Striping for helping with the install!
If you want to see pictures of the install, click below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tdotbikes/MountainGrantGreenBikeLaneInstall
Tom Thivener
Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager
City of Tucson Dept. of Transportation
201 North Stone Avenue – 6th Flr
Tucson, AZ 85726-7210
(520) 837-6691
FAX: (520) 791-5902
www.dot.tucsonaz.gov/bicycle
–Erik Ryberg
September 10th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Great picture! Note how many vehicles are parked IN THE BIKE LANE!! I know they are there as part of the installation and to keep traffic off while they are installing, but note they are parked on the other side, too – there are plenty of side streets to park on, they don’t have to park there. I use that stretch daily, and almost never get through without encountering a car driving in the bike lane, a landscaper parked there, etc., etc. More than once I have been verbally threatened with being run over by drivers using the bike lane. TPD’s response? “Sorry, if we didn’t see it, we can’t help you”. Put up all the signs and colored pavement you want to, but if TPD refuses to enforce it, what good is it??
September 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
One of my very first bike rides when I moved to Tucson some years ago was on Mountain Avenue, and I got followed by a car that honked at me incessantly as I rode down the bike lane. I mean he just laid on the horn. I kept looking back at him in bewilderment because the entire car lane was open. Finally I moved way over to the right and he sped past me, then moved back into the bike lane and drove on!
To this day I have not been able to figure out what was going through that person’s mind.
EBR
September 11th, 2008 at 8:46 am
These things do work. Going southbound on Kolb at Valencia every morning used to be more of an adventure until the county install a blue thermoplastic lane before the start of the double right turn lane. I’ve used it every day since and not had a single problem. The cars go around or behind and I haven’t been honked at yet.
Steve
September 11th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Well, I rode over the “green zone” on the way home yesterday. It looks real good, beats the heck out of those yellow tubes that regularly got sheared off leaving jagged edges pointing straight up (remember those, anyone?)!
September 11th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Compared to most solutions this little green patch it great, but there is still so much ground to be made with the auto industry and just Americas mindset as a whole.
If you step back and look at not realising that it’s there to protect bicyclists- then it’s really rather hideous. It pops from its surroundings (for a good reason), and will probably quickly lose its brightness and effectivness.
Thats just being pessimistic though, every damn corner should have one of these things!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Andrew – the thermoplastic material is really quite durable. The blue piece I mention above has been in place for 6 months and gets driven over by about (I’m guessing) 25,000 cars a day and it still sparkles and is showing no wear at all.
Steve
September 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Why is mountain the only street in Tucson that gets all this bike-friendly attention? I’m sure there are hundreds of other streets in Tucson that could benefit from wider lanes, bike boxes, etc, yet Mountain ave, stands out from the rest. I’m not really complaining, per se, I like riding down that street, I’m just confused why they picked that particular one to focus on.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
There was an accident or fatality there, I think.
Then, of course, ’something must be done’.
The blue kept wearing due to the high volume
of traffic. This green impregnated ‘mat’ should
stand up to the traffic and sun.
Mountain Ave. could very likely be the most
heavily bicycled route in town…a bike traffic
count is scheduled by PAG in October.
However, doing all of Mountain Ave. at the same
time would have been proactive, wouldn’t it.
Along with being cheaper in the long run…
Along with maybe saving a few lives and accidents..
Along with (horrors upon horrors) being something
enjoyed by thousands and thousands of people-
bike trips monthly.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
[...] is particularly poignant to me that he was killed just two days after a “bike box” safety lane was installed at Grant and Mountain. I hope we can get on at the Fort Lowell intersection now, [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
washington dc could use some bike boxes
I am going to send a link to that image to the folks at WABA
waba.org