Portland, Oregon makes the New York Times for its bike-friendly atmosphere
I was in Portland not long ago and was astonished to see so many cyclists. Not the lycra-clad types but the grubbier folk — the people who daily use their bikes to get from place to place. I’m sure Portland is a great place for the more recreational cyclists, too, but the numbers of people who were just using their bikes as basic transportation is what impressed me.
The New York Times has an excellent article on Portland and its abundance of small, bike-related industries that made me wonder why Tucson could not do the same thing. We have better bike-riding weather, a flatter topography, and a University with tens of thousands of students in town. This should be a biking Mecca.
Sadly, it isn’t. And just obtaining “Platinum” status isn’t going to change that. What will change it is a comprehensive commitment on the part of the City to make cycling in Tucson safe and reliable. As I have said many times, there is one weak link that is going to have to be fixed for Tucson to deserve Platinum or even its current Gold status.
The weak link is the Tucson Police Department. Until TPD starts protecting bicyclists, Tucson is never going to be a safe place to ride a bike. Cyclists should not have to worry about getting a ticket when someone hits them in a bike lane. Cyclists should not have to file internal affairs investigations in order to get the police to investigate a hit-and-run. Cyclists should not have to hire lawyers to get an investigation done when they have been assaulted by a motorist. Cyclists should be able to expect that when they are lying in the pavement after an accident, the police will take the time to identify the location of their bicycle, the car that hit them, and where they landed so that an investigation can occur.
But currently, cyclists in Tucson can rely on none of that, and Tucson is, in my view, undeserving of its Gold status.
–Erik Ryberg
November 6th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Did you notice in the video the newspaper headline about the death of the 2 cyclists? That would NEVER happen here. The headline, that is.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Sounds like the socioeconomic connotation with riding a bike somewhere has a very different meaning in Portland than it does in Tucson. The cops would respect cyclists a lot more if they suspected more of them were 30- or 40-something voters who know how to make a stink with the right people.
All this talk about the attitudes regarding cycling in Portland are making me think about visiting…
November 7th, 2007 at 9:47 am
You are in the same boat in Tucson that we are in Columbus (and, I suspect, all over the country). Lack of police enforcement, misunderstanding of what the bicycle code is, or a car-centric view on how the law should be applied are things that plague this country from coast to coast.
semper augustus has it right: if people who have pull but still ride start making a fuss, then things will change. Until then, everyone’s just going to think that we either have to ride because we either can’t afford a car, or have a problem with our driver’s license.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:46 am
I have been almost hit by a police cruiser. In protecting the cyclist, Tucson has a long way to go. They paint a white line down the shoulder of the road then call it a bike lane. Even as something as simple as getting a state bottle deposit… it would help keep glass of the road. Arizona also likes to consider the state “greener” than most. It is all too sad.
December 8th, 2007 at 4:33 am
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