Tucson Police say they will dramatically reduce their presence at the Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride — for now.
Adam and Nick, two of the organizers of the Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride, met with Captain Tarrant of the Tucson Police Department this morning. The meeting was very graciously facilitated by Councilperson Jose Ibarra, at his office. I was invited to join them, along with several others including my co-worker Elizabeth. She may want to post her own observations here, but as for me, here is what I heard at this meeting.
1. Tarrant said that we can expect only about six bicycle cops at tomorrow’s ride, and no motorcycle cops will join the ride. There is some possibility there will be motorcycle cops at the intersections, but they will not ride through the group as they did last week.
2. Tarrant also said the reason for the show of force last week was because the police were responding to complaints by motorists that people were disrupting traffic and other things. The police were uncertain what to expect and so they showed up prepared, as we all noticed, to make a large number of arrests. When they got there, they realized we were actually all very peaceful people out to enjoy a bike ride, not rowdy vandals and lawbreakers.
3. He repeatedly stated that if we would do some “self-regulating” he would like to remove the bike police from the ride entirely, but we will have to show we can actually do that. This means having people who ensure that riders stay in a single lane, let cars pass, and so on. If we can do that I personally believe that Tarrant and the TPD will reduce their presence down to just about nothing.
4. The sticking point is the intersections. We are not permitted to block intersections and they aren’t going to do it for us unless we pay them to do it.
5. Juveniles who do not have lights and helmets will be ticketed. This seemed like a pretty high priority with Tarrant. If you bring your kids to this ride, please see they have lights and helmets.
At the end of the meeting we agreed to email Tarrant as soon as possible with the route of the ride, and we agreed to find some people to be “bike marshals” to try to keep the riders together, keep a lane open for traffic, and help things move safely. We came to no agreement about intersections. The agreement to post the route and have the marshals is in response to Tarrant’s promise that motorcycle cops would not be riding among us and even the bike cop presence would be dramatically scaled back.
Nick, Adam, and Ian are trying to develop routes as I write this. They are trying to develop routes that cross as few large streets as possible and that travel on the safest roads as possible, but that do not stray too far from downtown.
If you would like to be a bike marshal, please show up a few minutes early at Time Market. Adam and Nick will be distributing reflective tape and will give you some instructions.
Remember folks, the organizers are trying to make this a fun ride for everyone. It is not a critical mass ride. As I have heard them say, there’s nothing wrong with critical mass rides, this just isn’t one of them.
–Erik Ryberg
Update: Ian and others have completed the ride route, and made it available here.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Cops are bullies–you know as well as everyone else that they show up and try to provoke people so they can get off on showing how tough they are.
Actually, by what the capt said, you beat them at their game.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I’ve not been on these rides, but I support you fully. Hopefully, a little un-needed advice: be on the lookout for so-called ‘anarchists’ who will do what ever the hell they want and sometimes tempt the cops with some shenanigans. That’s been my personal experience at anything in Tucson that attracts lots of folks to any ‘activist’ activity. Yeah, the cops are abusive, but the black shirts are a pain in the ass as well. It will be interesting to see if your ’self policing’ will be effective with that lot. Good luck. And, again, that may not even be a concern for your group. Ride on!