was “Uncategorized”. All blog posts should have this category
The class is free, but space is limited so confirm by Feb 25 …
*Everyone is invited to a bicycle safety training event*
*What: “Traffic Skills 101 Intro”. *
This class is normally a two day course taught by the League of American
Bicyclist. We are lucky to have League certified instructors coming to
Happy Trails to teach the course and participate in an on-road skills
practice ride. This intro will trim down to 4 hours. Continue reading Traffic Skills 101 Intro, Surprise, AZ Feb 28
Arizona’s 52nd Legislature – First Regular Session is now in full swing. Below is a brief guide to following legislation in Arizona… For the nuts-and-bolts of how a bill becomes law, the multiple “readings”, and the COW, and so forth, see e.g. this document from azpolicy.org Continue reading Arizona Legislation
by Roseann Wagner
When I arrived at the Usery Mountain Regional Park for the 2015 version of the New Years Day Pinnacle Peak Peddlers potluck at 9:00 A.M. the thermometer registered 34º. When I left at 1:15 P.M., the thermometer showed 42º. What transpired in that 8º window?
First order of business, get that 40-cup coffee pot perking. Set out all the utensils and plates. Cups for not only coffee, and cocoa, but champagne with which to toast the New Year are set out. Thereʼs a table for hot dishes, a table for desserts, and several tables for socializing.
People start to arrive with food, chairs, and blankets. Since I was nursing a cough and sneezes, I brought my heater and a heating pad. Considering Arizona weather, I layered because certainly I assumed Iʼd get too warm with a cotton turtle neck, a wool vest, a wool sweater and a rain jacket. NOT! I appreciated my wool socks and all the other trappings that I hauled out there.
Cyclists gathered at Ramada D-1 around 10 :30 for a 20 mile ride around the area led by Walt Paciorek. Walt shared the following, a cue sheet for the ride and a bit of local lore:
PPP ’15 Ride – 20 miles (one major climb), 23 miles (climbs), 30 miles (lots of
climbs)
At the close of the 19th Century, Dr. Walter William Jones, a physician-rancher, ran cattle from the Lower Salt River to the foothills of Four Peaks. “Butcher” was a common nickname for physicians during this period. After the Stewart Mountain Dam was completed and Saguaro Lake filled in 1930, a cove and beach were named “Butcher Jones” by those who remembered the good doctor. “Usery” comes from King Usery, who had a ranch around there at the same time. Jack Stewart also ranched the area, apparently just after Jones and Usery.
As Waltʼs group returned and cyclists biked in from Sun Lakes and Tempe, the socializing began in earnest. No one had to be called twice for food–hearty chili and other nourishing hot food.
A new feature of the gathering this year was a collection of bike clothes and bike parts that have been sent to Lon Haldeman of PAC Tour who for the last decade has nurtured biking in S. America and Africa as well as furnishing books to orphanages and building schools in Lima, Peru.
This is how Lon describes the events: “For the past five years the racing club in Lima, Peru has been organizing a two-day-stage race in the northern part of the city. The reason it is called the Gringo Race is because all the prizes have been donated by PAC Tour riders and other American cyclists. This race has the best prizes of any event in Peru. We will take over 250 jerseys, shorts and various cycling supplies to Peru. The first stage is an 80 KM road race through the desert sand dunes. The next day is a 20 KM criterium through the small streets of the town of Puente Piedra. There will be about 200 riders in various age groups attending the races”.
This year on New Years Day, we collected many items including a dozen bike shorts, forty-three jerseys of all kinds, four helmets Trek, Giro, etc., shoes, 6 pair, socks, some never worn, 9 jackets, some light, some heavy, seven tubes, a box of water bottles plus, several Camelbacks, bike bags and fanny packs and bike parts to use for repair It cost $195 to ship three boxes all from donations.
Within days, the reservation for the next annual PPP potluck are made by Walt.
The inscription reads “One moment of a driver’s inattention made and end to his trip, his dreams, his life”. Joeri Gorter, a Dutch visitor touring the US, was killed by a careless delivery truck driver near Page, AZ, in 2008.
Joeri’s parents Klaas and Marijke Gorter are the kind people who donated a significant portion of a legal settlement to the CAzB to try to help make Arizona a more safe and enjoyable place for bicycle riders. The photo above is the memorial to Joeri that the local Native Americans have allowed to be placed on tribal land near the site of the crash that took Joeri’s life.
Linda, Dennis and I (Bob Beane) hosted the Gorters in the Sedona area after they completed re-tracing the route that Joeri had taken from the west coast. It was our attempt to thank them for their donation and to try to put Arizona, and our bicycling opportunities, in a more positive light than what they had experienced through the loss of their son. We gave them a tour of the just recently completed Highway 179 project, and subsequently shared with them our cover article in the LAB’s American Bicyclist magazine regarding that project.
I’m sending this to you so that this history is shared and carries on with the newer members of our team, and so that you share in my sense of obligation to the Gorters and to all who ride their bikes in Arizona…whether they live here or are just visiting or passing through.
Here’s of video of Joeri with a group of “rowing” bikes taken in 2007… At about 3:15 there is a close-up of Joeri. Then you see him at a café and biking more from then on in his white shirt and gray cap.
Please visit www.joerigorter.nl for more about Joeri’s life.
The following guest commentary by Bob Beane was published in the Ahwatukee Foothill News 12/28/2014:
Recently, a bicyclist was killed on Pecos Road. Then, this past week, another cyclist was killed and two others hospitalized following an accident.
Nationally, driver fatalities appear to be declining (due to increasing occupant-oriented safety measures built into vehicles), but there is evidence that pedestrian and bicyclists fatalities are headed in the other direction. In fact, the U.S. Department of Transportation has just been tasked, by a rarely bipartisan Congress, with developing a separate metric to assess this very issue.
There are a number of new campaigns (Nissan red thumb band, It Can Wait, etc.) that ask motor vehicle drivers to stay off their cell phones while driving. And, there are other campaigns that attempt to address DUI, speeding and the need to slow down and move over when approaching public safety vehicles at roadside.
It is now time in Arizona to combine these informational campaigns with more significant penalties for negligent and inattentive driving, including much higher fines, longer suspension of driving privileges and serious jail time when crashes are caused that result in injury or death. Be it a pedestrian, a bicyclist or another vehicle driver, everyone deserves our full attention to “job one” when we drive: which is the safety of the driver, passengers and other roadway users. Nothing less should be acceptable, and we should back that up with commensurate legal consequences.
As a society, we need to emphasize the point that driving is a privilege, not a right, and we should legally enforce the expectation that sharing the roadway with others requires a higher standard of care.
Bob Beane is an economics graduate of the College of Wooster and an MBA accounting graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is also a bicycling advocate and has been a resident of Ahwatukee since 1992.
by Roseann Wagner
The Olympics and Tour de France are world-class events of which we’ve all heard. Although we are close neighbors to a Commonwealth nation, Canada, what do you know about the Commonwealth Games? And what is Arizona’s connection to those Games? Read on.
Continue reading Commonwealth Games
Chandler, AZ couple Steve and Kathy McDermott describe their 4,500 mile transamerica adventure.
by Steve and Kathy McDermott
We decided that this summer (2014) was going to be THE summer that we cycled cross the United States. Using Adventure Cycling’s Trans Am Route, we left Mechanicsville VA May 13 for our wonderful adventure. Our route, with some deviation, took us 114 days (88 cycling and 26 planned off days), totaled 4,546 miles, with 173,941 total feet of climbing. We love cycling and bicycle touring but had never done a self supported tour lasting more than 3 weeks.
We have been married 36 years and travel extremely well together. This entire trip was not a one-person-did-it-all adventure. We have no children and are very close in everything we do. We did not once feel the need to get away from each other. You must be on the same page as your travel partner or you are setting yourself up for disaster. Our years of marriage pretty much took care of this for us. We cannot for one minute imagine having done this trip with anyone but each other. We both feel so very fortunate to enjoy the same activities. This trip would not have been the same with anyone else.
We like plans so we, in essence, planned a one to two week vacation every couple weeks in order to have a definite place to stay and known route. We did prepare cue sheets prior to the trip which were immensely helpful. We just read the turns on the Adventure Cycling Maps and typed up the cues. We stayed in hotels/motels every night except for a few nights when we stayed in a bicycle hostel. Our preference is not to camp; however, we did carry a light tent, sleeping sacks and Thermarest pads in the event we were forced to camp.
We were very thankful for GPS and smart phones, although cell coverage was sporadic in some parts of the country. We carried an iPad with a wireless keyboard to create an on line journal and posted daily updates. If you are interested in our journal, the link is as follows: www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/kstransam2014
We flew from our home in Chandler AZ to Richmond VA. We traveled east to west because we knew the heat, humidity and hills in Virginia, Kentucky, southern Illinois and Missouri were going to be brutal. We were not disappointed. We have biked the Rockies in the past, and we were looking forward to biking towards them. Many people also feel the prevailing wind is west to east. From the countless journals we read both before and during the trip, this is not true. We had just as many days with tailwinds as headwinds. Which direction you travel is a personal preference; ours was east to west.
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| climb from Halfway,OR to Richland,OR |
Physically the trip was very demanding. We are 63 years old, avid and very experienced cyclists, and had some very tough days. However, it was nothing more than we had done before. We were each carrying about 50 pounds of gear on our touring bikes. You must remember bicycle “touring” is different from daily riding. Although we approached each day with the attitude that it is just another day ride, we were in no hurry. We averaged approximately 10 to 12 MPH most days. Our slowest day was approximately 7 MPH and our fastest approximately 14 MPH.
We had many good days and a few not so good. Numerous factors enter into the evaluation of a day; e.g., weather (rain/sun/snow; wind; temperature; humidity); traffic; road conditions; road surface, scenery; and terrain. It is all relative as a bad day could be an exceptional day given different conditions.
The people we met did make the trip, and we met countless people who made the trip enjoyable.
The simplicity of self supported bicycle touring for an extended period of time is liberating. Everything we needed was on that bicycle, and we had more than enough. We did not carry food or cooking gear, opting instead to eat in restaurants. However, we did always have emergency rations and snacks on the bikes.
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| Grand Tetons |
We biked through Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon. Everyone in every state was wonderful to us. However, our favorite state was Kansas for the people. Our favorite states for scenery were Colorado, Wyoming and Oregon.
Not that we needed confirmation, but this trip most definitely confirmed that America is beautiful, and we are so very proud to be Americans. It was wonderful to see it all at an average speed of approximately 10 MPH.
League Announces Fall 2014 Bicycle Friendly Communities
First time honoree: Phoenix is named Bicycle Friendly at the Bronze level. “Achieving Bronze level BFC is a great first step on Phoenix’s journey to Platinum level. We have a soon-to-be-approved bicycle master plan with 380 projects. I am excited for the future of bicycling in Phoenix.” — Joseph Perez, Phoenix Bike Coordinator
Arizona communities currently enjoying BFC status are
The Coalition is proud to announce two $1,000 grants to two organizations that promote safe bicycling to needy bicyclists and would-be bicyclists. The awards will be used to purchase helmets, lights, or any other supplies that need to be purchased in furtherance of their mission.
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| We-Cycle exec director Robert Chacon, right, at a recent bike safety event |
The first recipient, Phoenix-based WE-CYCLE-USA: Helps kids and adults in need through the recycling of used bicycles while promoting the use of bicycles as an environmentally friendly form of transportation. We provide the tools, supplies and knowledge necessary to recycle, maintain and SAFELY operate each bicycle. We believe by teaching kids and adults to recycle, repair and SAFELY maintain their own bicycles we empower them and promote independence.
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| Crossroads Mission Bike shop mechanic Mike receives Cazbike donation from Lynn Dalbey |
The other recipient, Crossroads Rescue Mission of Yuma Arizona, is a full-service, human rescue mission in every sense of the word. They prepare over 120,000 meals a year, house transients, have one of the best GED programs in the county, drug & alcohol rehab program and have approximately 102 in our family shelter (49 are children). Included in all of this is a very good, well-equipped bicycle shop. Park tools and stands and all. They have a full time mechanic who repairs bicycles for the needy as well as for the thrift store, and sell them to those who need transportation and enjoy bicycling. “The Bill Anderson Crossroads Mission Bicycle shop is most grateful for the donation of $1,000 from Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists. This money will go to buy parts that are not available from other old salvaged bikes”.
More about the Coalition: the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists promotes efforts that improve bicycling usage and safety within the state of Arizona by addressing law enforcement and transportation engineering issues through education, outreach and advocacy programs thereby enhancing the role of bicycling in local, county and statewide transportation plans. Learn more about the Coalition at www.cazbike.org, or find us on facebook at www.facebook.com/CAzBike
The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists is pleased to announce that Spencer Scharff of Phoenix has joined the Coalition’s Board of Directors. Spencer has been a cyclist since he was very young and is looking forward to contributing to the Coalition’s important mission.
Spencer received his bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law in 2010. After law school, he clerked for the Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then practiced commercial and appellate litigation in the Los Angeles office of Paul Hastings LLP. This past year, he returned to Phoenix and the Ninth Circuit for an additional one-year clerkship with Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz. Following the end of his clerkship with Judge Hurwitz, he joined Thorpe Shwer P.C.
