TUCSON, Ariz. — The City of Tucson is looking for public input on a planned bicycle boulevard.
The Department of Transportation and Mobility says it will slow down drivers on the street and make it safer for bicyclist and pedestrians.
“I was riding it 2 or 3 times a week for a couple years,” said bicyclist David Martin. Martin says he likes the route, but he has seen drivers speeding by a little too close for comfort.
“Sometimes they pull out into the street without seeing me, that's probably the worst.”
Project Manager Collin Chesston says they have had numerous complaints of speeding in the area, and says turning the street into a bicycle boulevard should slow things down.
“One of the ways we manage speed on these bicycle boulevards are speed humps, we do traffic calming with speed humps, traffic circles and curb extensions,” said Chesston.
Chesston says the goal would be to slow cars to about the speed of the cyclists, and pedestrian crossings would be added at busier streets along the route. The five-mile bicycle boulevard will go from Oracle to McCormick Park off of Columbus.
“What we are trying to do is leverage those funds to create an interconnected low-stress network of bike facilities, so Blacklidge is nice because it provides east-west connectivity to a lot of neighborhoods and also connects to other neighborhoods that go north-south.”
The project is in the design phase and the city is looking for public input. Here’s a link.
“That would make it a lot safer,” said Martin.
Construction is planned to start early next year.
