Signs like these popped up along the streetcar route this week.
In what has become a recurring theme, this type of accommodation for bicycle and pedestrian safety has come several weeks after they were actually needed.
This particular stretch of road on the UA campus has been open for a month without signs. In that time several people have fallen on the tracks, including one who was photographed by the Arizona Daily Star.
Like these signs, the flashing crossing signals along Euclid Avenue appeared several weeks after bicyclists and pedestrians were forced to use alternative crossings when the crossing at University Boulevard and Euclid Avenue was closed.
The caution sign does paint a pretty ominous picture, all right. What’s needed is a massive education in proper cyclist behavior around tracks. (Cross them at a 90 degree angle. Otherwise, avoid them like they’re a rattlesnake.)
I’m also becoming more convinced that putting cyclists into the mix with automobiles and streetcars on streets where a great deal of the space is devoted to tracks will prove to be a fatal idea. Literally.
So, fellow cyclists, I urge you to AVOID the streets where the tracks have been installed. Our needs were not considered, and now our lives are at risk.
The caution sign does paint a pretty ominous picture, all right. What’s needed is a massive education in proper cyclist behavior around tracks. (Cross them at a 90 degree angle. Otherwise, avoid them like they’re a rattlesnake.)
I’m also becoming more convinced that putting cyclists into the mix with automobiles and streetcars on streets where a great deal of the space is devoted to tracks will prove to be a fatal idea. Literally.
So, fellow cyclists, I urge you to AVOID the streets where the tracks have been installed. Our needs were not considered, and now our lives are at risk.
It sure doesn’t sit well with me that cyclists are the ones getting shoved around by the whims of other forms of transportation that require nothing of the user but to sit there and suck up energy resources and hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investment. We are the ones out there doing something.
The ‘Star’ photographer was the actual distraction that resulted in the girl veering into the tracks. He was somewhere toward the middle of the street. The bike ambassador’s reaction was to immediately start spewing track avoidance tips while she was still on the ground. BS……..double BS.
I try to be patient and understanding with construction, but it is extremely apparent that the City could do a much better job of accomodating cyclists, pedestrians and other users much better. I live on one side of the U of A and work on the other. This is by far the most dangerous commute (by bike) that I have ever had in my life.
The normal everyday insanity of riding through the chaos of the University is bad enough.
Here are my options in traveling (west to east) to work right now. 1st Street and 2nd Street – they don’t go thru the U of A, they are in very bad condition for daily riding. University in mostly fenced in. 4th Street is looking like the best option, although I have tried it. 5th Street is never an option for a cyclist. I gave up and tried Speedway the other day. I didn’t realize that it was down to one bike lane with absolutely no accomodation for the missing bike route. I am required by physics to break the law and ride inside of the construction zone.
I don’t think it is just the cyclists who were left out of the picture. I just hope there is no one on University who relies on a wheelchair to get away from their house. The fences and sidewalks at their current state would not allow for handicapped access. I would be suprised if someone weren’t preparing an ADA lawsuit based on this.
The situation at the UA has improved greatly in the past four days. Second Street is now open, as well as the unmarked stretch of Highland (behind the Administration Building) that leads to the middle underpass.
Martha, this morning, crosswalk at Speedway and Euclid just before 9 a.m. I was on that bus. –Suzanne (we talked the other night at LSA) 2894zero88
Yes, I know. I wasn’t paying attention and walked out into the crosswalk.
I was so damn mad at myself that I got back onto the sidewalk and turned away from Speedway. I didn’t deserve to look at it.
Then,
after I crossed Euclid, then Speedway, and got onto the proper corner, I
told myself that I’d better earn the right to get back on the bike. If I
did another thing that was stupid, well, it would be off the bike and
walking the rest of the way home. I don’t care if home’s a mile away.
Yes, I did ride the bike home, repeating a new mantra:
Don’t Be Stupid.
Moral: Pay attention!
It takes 2 to tango, Martha— there’s no excuse for the bus driver not making sure the intersection was his before turning. I was sorry to see you shook up. Did not mean to call you out– quite the contrary. Seems to me SunTran is in denial: they have not adjusted their schedules one iota. Drivers are expected to navigate the disaster without dropping a minute. No wonder they are speeding like maniacs and turning in to pedestrians and bikes. I see it every day. And yes, I have been talking to the bus co. about this…
Those signs were a topic at this past Tuesday’s BAC downtown subcommittee meeting. Apparently the city put out a dozen and half of them were gone overnight. The theory is people think the graphic is funny and take the signs. These were actually unbolted from the supports which took some time to accomplish.
The issue of signage in the construction zone has been ongoing. Jesse Gutierrez the project manager for the city of Tucson has used vandalism as the explanation for why the signage has been so haphazard and ineffective. Perhaps but the vandalism isn’t really the majority of the problem. If you are constructing a lowered speed zone it seems pretty basic to bag or block the regular speed limit signs. They managed to do this on Grant Rd approaching Oracle. In general the traffic control measures have been ineffective and poorly implemented. Euclid is a living hell to try and traverse because the automobile speeds haven’t been controlled.
It seems pretty clear the the resources devoted to maintaining safe and adequate bicycle pedestrian access throughout the modern st car construction zone have been inadequate. You wouldn’t paint the interior of a house without using drop cloths, why would you build a street car line and neglect controlling traffic and providing for bicycle pedestrian access? This should have been a larger line item in their now 192 million dollar budget.
Currently the mantra of the project team seems to be it’s stopped raining and this will all be over soon. The reality is it won’t be over any time soon the problem is just going to move east and west towards the terminuses.