BICAS’s refugee program
Bicas from The Episcopal Church on Vimeo.
I am so proud to be a part of BICAS! What a great organization.
–EBR
My depressing bus stop
Why do we tolerate this in our city? Our freeway interchanges have far better landscaping — and shade — than this.
–EBR
Bike Camp!
For those of you who don’t know, some current and former BICAS employees put on Bike Camp this year. It was a huge success and is now firmly on my list as one of those things that makes Tucson a great place to live.
Check out more photos at http://esensphotography.smugmug.com/Sports.
If you like this concept, be sure to thank and support BICAS and El Grupo.
TucsonVelo.com ponders the Bay Area
Mike McKisson is riding around the Bay Area this week and is coming to the same conclusions I did in my recent trip to Portland: our bike infrastructure is awesome compared to some places whose bikey-ness is awesome, but our bikey-ness is not awesome compared to those very same places.
Which has led him to the same place it led me: maybe bike infrastructure isn’t going to get us where we want to go. Maybe we need something more.
So he’s been pondering what makes for awesome bikey-ness. When I did that, I concluded that we are doomed and should give up, but I think McKisson is a little more hopeful and not quite so ready to throw in the towel. On consideration, I like his approach better.
–Erik Ryberg
“The auto habit has struck Tucson”
So proclaimed the AZ Daily Star 100 years ago today.
–EBR
“It seems that a tank is the best solution.”
Here we are getting outdone by Lithuania. Looks like a pretty nice place to live.
–EBR
How Dutch people open their car doors
Did you know that in Holland drivers are taught to reach for their car door handle with their right hands? (See fourth paragraph of linked article.) This forces you to turn and look behind you when opening the door so you can see if anyone is approaching on a bicycle. What a civilized country!
I’m going to start doing that.
As an aside, how big do you think a parking garage would have to be to accommodate all the people whose bikes are in the photo below, had they driven a car instead of ridden their bikes? (Photo from NY Times article linked above).
–EBR
Motorist strikes cyclist, then returns to hit him again, and is released on $500 bond
At least the Milford police acted responsibly and tracked this guy down – something our police force didn’t do in a similar incident that occurred here in Tucson. Story here.
Milford bicyclist heard words ‘kill him, run him over’ before being hit by car, cops say
By Brian McCready, Milford Bureau Chief
bmccready@nhregister.com / Twitter: @nhrbmccreadyMILFORD — The 42-year-old bicyclist told police he heard the words “kill him, run him over.”
Then the car allegedly hit the bike the man was on, police said.
The man was thrown from the bike but was not seriously injured, police said.
But then the motorist turned the car around and this time allegedly ran the bike over, police said.
When police responded to the incident in the area of Edgefield Avenue at the intersection of Yale Avenue around 5:30 p.m., the bicyclist was able to recall the license plate number on the car and that led investigators to arrest a 20-year-old Bird Lane resident, police spokesman Sgt. Vaughan Dumas said.
Louis A. Melfi III, is charged with evading responsibility, and reckless driving, police said. Melfi told police there was a problem with a bicyclist but denied striking the bike, police said.
But the bicyclist, who was not identified, told police he was on a leisurely ride Wednesday evening when he heard a female voice shouting from a car “kill him, run him over,” Dumas said.
The bicyclist was driving in the shoulder of the road eastbound on Edgefield Avenue and told police he also heard a male voice yelling, “I’m gonna run you off the road,” police said.
The vehicle hit the bike’s rear tire and the man was knocked off the bike, he told police. He also told police the car continued a short distance, and then stopped, backed up and ran the bike over a second time before being driven off, police said.
In addition to the license plate number, the bicyclist provided a description of the vehicle. The vehicle was located at Melfi’s residence. Investigators determined based on physical evidence from the car that it did strike the bicycle and Melfi was arrested. He was released after posting $500 bail and is due to appear in Superior Court in Milford Aug. 11.
–EBR
Hanging out in my local food desert
I read this New York Times article yesterday about First Lady Michelle Obama’s successful campaign to persuade Wal Mart, Walgreens, and other retailers to provide healthier food choices and reduce the prevalence of “food deserts” in our communities. A food desert is an area where more than 500 people live further than one mile from a reliable source of healthy food.
After thinking about it for a second, I realized that I live right in the middle of such a place. So I went to the USDA’s Food Desert Locator to make sure.
It turns out that an awful lot of Tucsonans live in a food desert, and Arizona ranks nearly five times the national average for urban housing units inside food deserts, at 10.2 percent. Nearly fourteen percent of all Arizonans live in a food desert.
I am no fan of Wal Mart and I’m not going to start shopping there, but I have to salute them for taking this step, and I admire the work Mrs. Obama has done on this issue. I wonder if fixing our food desert problem might go a long ways toward fixing our bike-friendliness problem, too.
–Erik Ryberg
My trip to Cheyenne
I just got back from a quick trip to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where I had argument in a non bike-related case in federal court. (It went well.)
Now, I would never want to live in Cheyenne because it is too cold and windy most of the year. And it certainly did not make the list of America’s Most Bike-Friendly Cities. But I got to spend a few moments walking around downtown and what struck me is that Cheyenne, Wyoming, population 55,000, has a downtown that is probably three times the size of Tucson’s. (It’s not that easy to measure such a thing but I’m talking about streets and blocks that contain storefronts and services people are likely to need or at least want regularly, and that are close enough together that you would always walk from one to the other.) Here’s a picture:
It would be really easy to make this place bike-friendly if the city administrators wanted to. I saw a fair number of people riding, and like most western cities, the roads have plenty of room to spare for bike lanes. It’s flat there and things seem to be pretty close together. And unlike Tucson, they’ve had the sense not to run their freeways through the middle of town. Let’s hope they contain the sprawl better than we have!
P.S. On the flight home I got to an old issue of The New Yorker that has this article about a Rwandan bike racing team financed in part by Tom Ritchey. It’s a touching and uplifting story with much to say about that country’s terrible history. I have always been an admirer of the Rwandan approach to the awful killings that happened there, and this article gives insight into the process and the legacy of that, all while talking about bike racing.
–Erik Ryberg