Author: News Letter

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about selling public land for housing and making public land more available for energy extraction or other mining. People living in Arizona, along with people living throughout the western United States, are more interested in preserving public land than allowing its sale. The interest in preserving public land is consistent across political and demographic boundaries. In addition to the preservation of plants and animals, preserving public land allows for recreational use by people, and that recreational use provides a large economic benefit for the State of Arizona, the American west, and the United States. 

As you communicate with your elected officials and others, please keep this in mind.  Continue reading People in Arizona Want Public Land Preserved  

The Arizona Department of Transportation is continuing to develop guidance documents on ways to improve safety for people who walk and people who bike. The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists participated in the development and provided input on the 2023 and 2024 plans. It is our goal as Active Arizona, to be involved in the development of the 2026 State Active Transportation Plan.  Continue reading ADOT Continues Work to Develop Documents to Improve Safety for People Walking and People on Bikes

When advocating for better active transportation infrastructure, maps can be helpful for both doing research and presenting information. Many government agencies, communities and other organizations have maps available for public use. There are maps showing crash locations, roadway safety projects, traffic volumes, travel times, and more.

In this article, we highlight some of the maps that members of the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists have found helpful. Examples of the following types of maps are listed below.

• Bicycle Lane Maps
• Community Development Maps
• Crash Location Maps
• Motorized Traffic Volume Maps
• Non-motorized Traffic Volume Maps
• Recreation Map
• Roadway Condition Maps
• Roadway Ownership Maps
• Roadway Safety Project Map
• Suggested Improvements Maps
• Travel Distance Maps
• Vehicle Ownership Map

Continue reading Maps, Maps, and More Maps

While we have known for some time that bicycle infrastructure leads to more people on bicycles, recent research published in Nature Cities quantified the amount that protected bicycle lanes increase roadway use by people on bicycles. This study, conducted in 28 different cities in the United States, found that more people ride bicycles and that people ride farther when there are protected bicycle lanes.  Continue reading Low Stress Bicycle Facilities Increase Bicycle Use as Transportation

 As people involved in bicycle advocacy, we often hear people who don’t support active transportation talking about bicycle infrastructure as if it adds no value or creates some sort of burden on our communities.  

This article provides responses to some of those statements.   

  Continue reading Economics and Bicycling in Arizona  

 

In June of 2024, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released their guidance on Separated Bike Lanes on Higher Speed Roadways: A Toolkit and Guide. The guide can be helpful for advocates and transportation planners in understanding how to promote and plan for the appropriate types of bicycle facilities on higher speed roadways.  In this article, the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists has summarized that guide. Continue reading FHWA Bike Lanes on Higher Speed Roads Summary

The Idaho Stop is the common name for any law that allows people who are riding bicycles to treat a stop sign as a yield sign, and/or a red traffic signal as a stop sign.

It is often referred to as the Idaho Stop as Idaho was the first state to adopt the law. Examples of existing laws are shown in the appendix below. Continue reading Stop as Yield aka “The Idaho Stop”