NP feature 6/14/15--Chapter 7: Scottsdale, AZ
Link to Overview article: Bicycling: 7 cities that will make Florida riders jealous
Scottsdale
GETTING THE GO-AHEAD AT TRAFFIC SIGNALS
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| Scottsdale, Ariz., uses pedestrian-activated hybrid beacons to facilitate mid-block crossings. (Photo: Special to The News-Press) |
Adding video cameras to detect cyclists at intersections so they get a turn at traffic signals is the next big bicycling safety enhancement here, said Susan Conklu, city transportation planner.
"We're focusing first on roads that have bike lanes, and the higher-traveled roads," Conklu said.
Fifteen intersections get the cameras to start, with more planned each year as finances permit.
The city also has installed some pedestrian hybrid beacons. They assist pedestrians and cyclists crossing in marked, but unsignaled crosswalks, operating much like a traffic signal, but costing less.
Scottsdale, Arizona, has a lot of bicycle bragging rights, with its 89 miles of paved, shared-use paths, 133 miles of striped bike lanes, 123 miles of marked, on-street bike routes and 143 miles of unpaved, shared-use trails.
And, it's far from finished.
"Scottsdale is about halfway built-out on our paved paths network," Conklu said, She added that anytime a road is updated, bike-lane striping is added.
I ride regularly in Scottsdale and while it's true that their cycling infrastructure beats ours here in
ReplyDeleteSW Florida it still suffers the same problems as most areas. Multi use paths that put the cyclist at the wrong side of an intersection, bike lanes that begin and end for no discernible reason in the most unlikely of places and a haphazard approach to integrating the cyclist into the traffic flow. In Scottsdale, as in many other places, it seems that traffic engineers often view cyclists as sort of "super pedestrians" or as an afterthought; leading us into the aforementioned problems of connectivity and poor design.
Still I congratulate Scottsdale and the surrounding greater Phoenix area for their efforts at integrating multi-modal transportation. they've done a better job at it than most but they still have a long ways to go.