Tucson Gets Together on Tuesdays
So folks, the Tucson Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride has continued to grow. This week the count was 230 cyclists! If you haven’t made it out yet, the time and place are the same for next Tuesday. We meet on the University of Arizona campus at University Blvd. and Park, just inside the gate at the flag pole, at 8pm.
The pace is slow and steady and the route can be chosen by any rider. Again, safety is important and everyone sticks together.
Usually when the ride passes automobile traffic, cyclists will wave and ring their bells, encouraging friendly interactions with drivers. This was the case last night as we passed one car that was stopped at a red light and the passengers honked and waved in return. One even yelled out the window, “I love bikers!” It’s important to know how people are responding to such a large group of cyclists, and though I’m sure not every driver is as excited as these were, it seems that most people appreciate and support the ride when they come across it.
One unfortunate exception last night was a police car that, upon encountering the ride, turned on their lights and squealed an accelerating left turn through the ride as we were also turning left from Main onto 18th. A friend and I agreed to hope that they had just gotten a 911 dispatch and therefore had good reason to make such a dangerous move.
The ride ended in an empty parking lot downtown. Everyone was riding around saying hi and catching up, exchanging stories from the week, or introducing themselves for the first time. I might sound a little romantic here, but this is such an important part of this event. Riding a bike encourages a connection with your environment, your city, and your community that riding in a car just doesn’t. It’s a great feeling to share this with so many people!
On that note, I hope to see you all next week!
Let’s make it to 300!
-elizabeth
October 5th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Hey there,
I’m Adam Piatkowski and I stumbled upon your site after searching for video of the Tuesday ride a couple weeks ago.
I’m glad to see that you’re putting information out there about the awesome experience of the ‘Tuesday ride!’
I’d like to reiterate that the tuesday ride is only about introducing people to the love of bikes and to other people who share that pure love.
An awesome by product of this ride is that many people who hadn’t felt comfortable riding bikes on open streets now have time to practice, in a safe environment, with many experienced cyclists. The best outcome of this ride would be to see more people commuting on bikes.
The Tucson bicycle community should and has seemed to embrace the Tuesday ride. It would be amazing if more people from the surrounding suburbs, who aren’t usually in ‘central’ tucson, came out to support our fast growing bicycle community!
And of course i’ll be on the next tuesday ride(10/09), riding a white and black fetish fixie; please come introduce yourself! Email me if you like at piatkows@email.arizona.edu
Thanks for supporting tucson cyclists!