Images courtesy Simon Eugster.
City planners’ commitment to making the Old Pueblo more bicycle-friendly could receive national accolades as Tucson prepares for its first ever Cyclovia event on April 18.
Recent innovations like bike boulevards, bike corrals, residential bike routes and more striped paths on city streets earned Tucson a gold rating in 2008 by The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), a national organization that advocates for bicycle education and infrastructure.
Pima County offers 650 miles of striped bike paths, 100 miles of residential bike routes and 72 miles of pedestrian/bicycle paths, according to statistics released by the City of Tucson Department of Transportation in 2008.
Cyclists’ nationwide use LAB ratings to judge which cities are the best destinations for cycling. The LAB ranks U.S. cities based on their “Five Es of Bicycling: education, enforcement, engineering, evaluation and encouragement.” Tucson received silver status in 2004, the first year the city applied for review.
“Tucson excels in almost every area of our rating system,” said Meghan Cahill, Director of Communications for the LAB. “We awarded them a gold rating in 2008 after the Tucson City Council’s decision to equip all main roads with new bike lanes.”
The Old Pueblo has yet to be awarded a platinum rating due to the lack of cyclists who depend on a bike as their main source of transportation, according to Tom Thivener, City Bike and Pedestrian Manager for the City of Tucson DOT. Thivener uses yearly data taken from the U.S. Census American Community Survey to calculate commuting percentages.
“The number of cyclists who commute to work is not high enough to deserve platinum status,” said Thivener. “We’re on the cusp of two-percent, but we need to be around five-percent to warrant a platinum rating.”
Some Tucson cyclists feel the city deserves platinum status because of the quick increase in bicycle infrastructure.
“The city has done some amazing things in a short period of time to improve and promote bike riding,” said Kylie Walzak, a local bicycle enthusiast.
Cahill stresses that acquiring a platinum rating is a lengthy process. “For Tucson to jump from a silver rating in 2004 to gold in four short years is a huge accomplishment,” said Cahill. “We love Tucson; it’s a great bicycle community. If their progress continues, they will be at platinum status in a short amount of time.”
