Officials managing the streetcar construction told the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee on Wednesday that the Luis G. Gutierrez bridge, which will connect the area west of I-10 with Downtown Tucson, will be open to bikes and pedestrians in July.
The streetcar team told the BAC that the Santa Cruz Path will reopen at the same time.
Other tidbits from their presentation:
- There are no bike hooks on the cars but there is space for bikes on each car.
- The construction is scheduled to take 475 days total.
- They are working on the segments with straight rails.
Officer elections
The BAC re-elected Ian Johnson as chair of the committee. He told the BAC that he felt like he was figuring out how to run the committee and was looking forward to continuing to work toward making bicycling an attractive option for everyone.
Improved crossing
The BAC passed a motion requesting the RTA or streetcar team to fund a bicycle crossing signal at 5th Street and Euclid Avenue, which would create an alternate route for cyclists into the University. It would allow cyclists to avoid riding on University Boulevard once the streetcar is up and running.
I have always heard that a signal at 5th St. would be too close to 6th St. to be allowed. Maybe something has changed.
In a transit oriented situation, why is it that bicycles get bumped off their route? I say mitigate the hazards on University created by the street car tracks rather than create a different route that has its own set of hazards.
I don’t know a worse time to be losing the city bike/ped coordinator. Who will be functioning in that position in the interim? A ‘place-holder” isn’t going to be of much value to cyclists.
Oh, I forgot….Anyone with input or concerns about this situation should really try to be at the BAC’s UA/Downtown Subcommittee meeting on Monday May 21st, I think, 4:15pm in the Public Works building.
Congratulations to Ian for being re-elected. Keep up the great work in making Tucson a better place for us all.