Bike boulevard: Tucson, Portland style

by David Safier

The Star has an article about Tucson's growing "bike boulevard" which includes this picture.

That is one of many features that have been added for $300,000 in tax money to turn Fourth and Fontana avenues into Tucson's first full-fledged "bike boulevard." In the works since 2008, the three-mile bike boulevard runs from University Boulevard to Prince Road. It will get final touches in the next month but is ready for use, Tucson officials say.

I was in Portland, Oregon, a few weeks ago and saw the bike boulevard concept in full swing. In the Irvington neighborhood where I stayed, designated streets were marked with bike symbols for blocks and blocks. Bikes could ride on other streets, of course, but on the designated streets, they were king. If you're in a car, you're smart to choose another street, because bikes often flow in a steady stream — commuters, families, hipsters, seniors, you name it. They don't feel they have to pull off to the side for you. Either adopt bike speed in your car or choose another street. Lots of Portlanders are upset by bikers' earth-friendlier-than-thou attitude which, some bikers seem to think, allows them to ignore street signs and general rules of the road, but on these streets, they absolutely have more rights than cars. It was a lovely thing to see bicycles riding unimpeded down these urban corridors.

My favorite Portland-ism was the "Bike Xing" signs at an intersection where the bike boulevard, which mainly runs on low traffic, residential streets, intersects with a reasonably busy thoroughfare. I took a couple of pics.