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Former Phoenix Metro Bicycle Club VP Running Chandler City Council

Former Phoenix Metro Bicycle Club vice president and Chandler cyclist, Kevin Hartke, is running for City Council in Chandler this year. In a recent communication to Bob Beane, CAzB president, Kevin commented, “I continue to love and encourage cycling (and give away police donated bicycles). With the increases projected for gasoline and mass transportation, cycling is more than ever a healthy, efficient and viable mode of transportation.” Chandler residents and others who would like to find out more about Kevin’s campaign may visit: www.KevinHartke.com

ACT Act Introduced

Representative Earl Blumenauer introduced the Active Community Transportation Act, H.R.4722, on 3/2/10. This groundbreaking bill creates a competitive grant program with $2 Billion to help communities build bicycling and walking networks. Read more & TAKE ACTION…
The accompanying chart shows the underfunded position of bike/pedestrian travel relative to the trips and percentage of fatalities. $2 billion sounds like a lot of money, but with these statistics in mind and the obesity problem in this country, it might be some of the best “economic stimulus” and “healthcare reform” spending we could do.

Benchmarking Report Making Its Mark

If you haven’t yet checked out Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2010 Benchmarking Report, released January 28, 2010, what are you waiting for? The nearly 200-page report filled with data on bicycling and walking from 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities has been labeled a “Bike-Ped State of the Union.” Over 2,000 e-copies have already been downloaded and 500 hard copies distributed. The hefty book is full of useful data to support your efforts to improve bicycling and walking in your state and community, and includes data on how the State of Arizona and our largest metropolitan areas rank in a number areas as compared to other states and cities.

LAB LCI Seminar: Late April

DATES SHIFTED

There is a train the trainer seminar to become a League Certified Instructor coming up April 23 (afternoon), 24th and 25th, 2010, at the Tempe Transportation Center, Tempe, AZ.
Please fill out the following form to gauge interest.

TS101 is pre-requisite; if you have not attended you have an opportunity to complete that on Feb 20 (or March 20 for Women only), see BikeEd for more info.

$13 Million Transportation Enhancement Funds Available for AZ Road Projects

The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) has been notified by ADOT that $13 million of Transportation Enhancement funding will be made available for qualified programs statewide in 2010. Approximately $8 million could be made available for projects on local roads, and $5 million for enhancement projects on state roads.

Eligible projects include bike lane striping, wide paved shoulders, off-street trails or shared-use paths and bike parking, as just a few examples.

The bicycling community needs to act quickly to get any new proposed projects in front of bike/pedestrian planners and transportation department engineers. The application deadline to MAG for Maricopa County projects is Wednesday, April 21. The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists can help put clubs, individual bicyclists and other interested parties in touch with the right person(s) to consider your ideas for potential projects.

Key dates related to this funding in Maricopa County (other counties, check with your local Association of Governments or City/County Transportation Dept.) include:

  • Monday, March 22, 2010 – 9:00 a.m.: TE Funds Workshop at MAG offices, 302 N. First Ave., Phoenix (Saguaro Room, 2nd Floor). This workshop will explain project eligibility and the funding process.
  • Friday, March 26, 2010: Applications will be available on the ADOT web site.
  • Wednesday, April 21, 2010: 8 copies of completed enhancement funds application due to MAG (no e-mail or fax submissions accepted).
  • Tuesday, May 4, 2010: Applicant Presentations to MAG Enhancement Peer Review Group.
  • Tuesday, June 8, 2010: MAG EPRG ranks applications.

Subsequent to the above, MAG staff will further review applications, make site visits, give feedback to applicants, etc., in preparation for final application submittal and reviews and approval by the State Transportation Board in November of 2010.

City of Tucson found liable for $13M

The city of Tucson was found 1/3 responsible for a $40M judgement in the death of a teenaged cyclist. Jose Rincon was killed by DUI driver Genda Rumsey in 2008. “A lawyer for the family argued successfully that the city was partially at fault because of the poor design of the road. City Attorney Mike Rankin said the city will appeal”

Arizona Daily Star, Feb 13, 2010, 40 Million awarded in teen’s death

In May, the $40M award was later reduced to $12M by Pima County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Lee. It was also revealed that the victim’s family had offered to settle with the City for only $950,000 before the trial but the city rejected that offer and instead preferred to take their chances at trial. Their reduced portion would be $4M. [azdailystar]