The Tucson Police Department addressed cyclists before the Tuesday Night Bike Ride last night.
Check out the video to see what the officers had to say and watch scenes from the ride.
Most of the cyclists on the ride waited for lights to change and generally followed the laws. The biggest complaint from many of the people on the ride was the lack of regrouping, something they hope is addressed.
What do you think? Were the police reasonable?
Read the other stories about the police involvement with the ride:
- TPD to speak at Tuesday Night Bike Ride
- Police a no-show at Tuesday Night Bike Ride
- TPD to work with cyclists to curb bike ride’s lawlessness
- Fox 11 airs story on Tuesday-night ride
- TPD looking to work with cycling community to calm TNBR
- Police present at Tuesday Night Bike Ride, several cyclists cited
The ride this week was awesome, I really enjoyed it. Decreasing our abuse of traffic laws did not decrease my enjoyment of the ride. In fact I enjoyed it more this way. The route was well designed and interesting, and the group largely stuck together.
Compared to my experience a few weeks ago where there was great rowdiness, a terrible route down very busy streets, bike/bike accidents from people doing stupid things, literally zero regrouping, etc. – this week was a breath of fresh air.
Wow. That’s quite a different tone the cops are taking since the first major crackdown, when the TNBR was first starting.
The ride was lots of fun – a great route makes all the difference. Reading the link in today’s link roundup about the negative cyclist/police interaction during a group ride in Boston, we should be thankful for the cooperative spirit between the TPD and TNBR – not many cities have that and we should strive to maintain and build on that. Just my opinion.
Also, kudos to TucsonVelo.com for being a great conduit of communication for people to vent frustrations, offer ideas, and presenting balanced coverage of all sides of this issue these past few weeks.
Thanks for the comment, Mike. The video I had of you saying the same thing was just too dark to use. I’m glad you posted this.
here’s my take on last night;
last night was meh… even after TPD addressed us and those bmx kids and fixes was all over the street(even wrong way) and sidewalk… even darted thru red light after stopped etc…
I am considering skipping it for good. I still can bike anywhere without TNBR as I am participating in 30 days of biking this month ( http://30daysofbiking.com ) and also I am car-free bicyclist.
In my recollection, the tone is very similar. A group of us met with the cops after that first bad night with the motorcycles, and in that meeting, the cops were pretty darn sympathetic to what the TNBR was trying to do. The cops then came to the flagpole and reminded people about the safety issues (lights, stay in lanes, etc.) but, as you may recall, they almost completely backed off enforcement after that. In part, the success was due to the TNBR crews starting a little bit of self-enforcement and a general understanding (that persisted for about a year) that the ride was not supposed to be critical mass.
I appreciated Sgt. Skeenes’ tone and moderate approach (“try to follow some of the laws”) to the issue. I clapped for him.
I thought the ride was pretty good… except for that part where we went under the freeway then made a U; that was insanely pointless.