Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
The spring 2026 legislative season (57th, 2nd Regular) is apparently up-and-running already! Senator John Kavanaugh (R-Scottsdale) has proposed legislation that would limit a bicyclist’s speed in certain places.
| SB1008 bicycles; mobility devices; speed limits |
There was a veritable media blitz; here are a few: Continue reading “Proposed legislation would regulate bicycle speed”
Arizona has had a significant increase in traffic deaths over the past 10 years or so… where deaths were around 800/yr in the period 2010-2014; they had increased to nearly 1,000 pre-pandemic (2019). Deaths spiked in 2020 and again 2021 with various pandemic-related excuses. Deaths in 2023 stand at 1307. So a 60% increase, far outstripping population growth. Details at [1] Continue reading “Vision Zero is trying to take away our gas stoves”
Jan 11, 2025 As noted by Bike Scottsdale: “The plan doesn’t just benefit our environment—it improves healthier streets for pedestrians and cyclists, cooler neighborhoods with tree canopy and shade, and better air quality for everyone. Repealing it would waste taxpayer dollars and undermine years of effort to build a vibrant, resilient future for all Scottsdale residents and visitors” Continue reading “What’s going on with Scottsdale?”
[Spoiler alert: As expected, Gov. Hobbs vetoed this bad bill 6/20/2023] Arizona legislature’s merged “prop 400” (a bill to enable a vote on Maricopa county SALES tax for transpo) bill has been passed by both house and senate on 6/13/2023 along straight party lines (i.e. by one vote in each chamber). As I said before, AZ Republican’s war on walking continues.. or rather their war on anything that’s not a car. Continue reading “VETOED: AZ Legislature’s latest emission”
See pics and more at :.
here's another illustration — BL is narrow. Only about 3' clear space (BL symbol is 40", as you can see it overhangs well into the gutter) pic.twitter.com/BXwrSYm2Zj
— Az Bikelaw (@azbikelaw) October 24, 2022
Continue reading “Avenida del Yaqui project completed Oct 2022”
Beginning in 2016, working from west to east, the entire length of Warner Road in City of Tempe has been resurfaced. The last segment, was just completed in May 2022.SMOOTH! Continue reading “Warner Road in the 21st Century”
McClintock Drive within the city of Chandler is being re-configured to add a bike lane in both directions. The construction appears to be nearly completed — this entails moving both curbs of the median toward the center, it looks to be about four feet.
In the photo, at the left (taken Jan 31, 2021) you can see the blacker strip of fresh asphalt. The striping has yet to change; I don’t know if they are planning to resurface it first (? just guessing, not. Just draw the new BL stripe, and black-out and move the dashed line a couple of feet. Continue reading “McClintock Drive (again)”
Despite availability of BMUFL/Change lanes to pass signs; there has been work ongoing to approve a whole new sign which would specifically refer to state passing law requirements in states with so-called numerical passing laws. According to NCSL as of April 2020, 34 states have such laws, almost all of them specifying a minimum of 3 feet, and most have some loopholes.
There are any number of home-brewed (non-standard) such signs in use all over the place (e.g. City of Phoenix has been using this sign since 2007); hopefully this will at least clean up that mess. Continue reading “Bicycle Passing Law Sign”
Spoiler alert: No. Ray Road, in Phoenix, does not now, nor has it ever had a bike lane. As I wrote in 2003 and again in 2010 Is this a Bike Lane? the answer is a flat ‘No’. Bike lanes must be marked to be a bike lane. (this also applies to portions of Chandler Blvd under discussion). Continue reading “Does Ray Road have a bike lane?”
3/20/2019
via email:
Bonnie Richardson bonnie_richardson@tempe.gov, Project Manager
cc: Julian Dresange, City Traffic Engineer
City of Tempe
Re: Alameda Drive Streetscape Proposal
The City of Tempe is considering various treatments along Alameda Drive; one section of which, between RR tracks and Rural Road is primarily residential and currently has no bicycling-specific striping or pavement markings. Continue reading “Alameda Streetscape Proposal”
According to Toole, et al, were it not for Forester, we would now have bike lanes everywhere. And not just bike lanes, the entire US would look something like Utrecht, Copenhagen, or Amsterdam. The March 2018 article is a review of a paper by Bill Schultheiss, Rebecca Sanders, and Jennifer Toole of Toole Design Group :
A Brief History of How American Transportation Engineers Resisted Bike Lanes
The “VC is only for old white males” is a trope. John Forester, author of Effective Cycling reiterates, e.g. in this August 2018 discussion thread (group membership required to see whole thread): Continue reading “Toole Design explains why we don’t have bike lanes in the US”
Cutting into a road surface creates maintenance problems. Since the city is ultimately responsible for it, there are a set of rules, permits, and fees imposed on whomever might be doing the digging, typically an adjoining property owner (for, for example a new driveway) or utility companies, or the city itself (see example photo at right).
The aftermath of any cutting or digging in a road is particularly problematical for bicyclists when it results in longitudinal gashes/gaps/cracks… and is particularly problematical when the crack is within a Bike Lane because it can reduce the usable width to the point where traveling within the BL becomes impossible to do safely; and furthermore these dangerous conditions are unlikely to be appreciated or even noticed by motorists. Continue reading “Phoenix’s Sawcut ordinance”
Thanks to the City of Tempe Streets Dept for contacting me/us about this project. A one mile section of Mill Avenue, from Broadway Road to Southern Avenue, is set to be resurfaced (they call this a “Pavement Preservation”) soon, I think Summer/Fall 2017.
This section has edge lines enclosing a small shoulder. (“fake bike lane”). Edge lines generally should not be used on urban arterial roads in this configuration; and especially when they look like bike lanes, and thus are easily confused with bike lanes. The picture of the grate, in the shoulder should be self-explanatory.
Here’s what the City said: Continue reading “Mill Avenue — Broadway to Southern — resurface”
There’s a new sign in town, well it’s actually a plaque, the R4-11aP CHANGE LANES TO PASS (“CLtP”)was just recently added to Arizona’s Manual of Approved Signs (MOAS) in March of 2017. Continue reading “Change Lanes to Pass”