Bicyclists die on Tucson streets and throughout the country each year. Other than small memorials alongside roadways, or news stories about the fatal crashes, we don't hear much about the lives ended and the remaining lives affected.
Southern Arizona communities will join hundreds of others in a Ride of Silence on Wednesday to raise awareness about bikes and cars sharing the roads.
Regionally, Rides of Silence are scheduled in Midtown Tucson and in Green Valley.
The central Tucson ride will start at 6 p.m. at Reid Park. This event will have police escorts and is scheduled to travel a nine-mile loop through the city.
The Green Valley Ride is set to begin at 5:30 at the Green Valley Recreation East Center and will be seven miles long.
The Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee endorses the rides and hopes drivers and bicyclists take time to learn to respect one another on the roads.
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Anyone with a bicycle and a helmet can join in the rides. Bicyclists must follow traffic laws and ride in silence at no more than 12 mph.
This event will draw attention to something that can be easy to forget for those who don't know anyone affected.
People die in bicycle crashes every year here.
Some are people who know their rights and the state laws that apply to bicyclists. Some are people who don't. They are people who ride for pleasure, and others who don't have a car. They are people who enjoy an outdoor commute or who compete on their bicycles.
They are killed by drivers who never saw them, and who did but disregarded them. They are killed by drivers who know the state laws that apply to vehicles passing bicyclists and people who don't know those laws or don't care to follow them.
The ride is a perfect chance to think about our role on the streets and how aware we are of others on the roads. The event also honors those who lost their lives.
It's not about who was right or wrong in the crashes, and it's not the time to debate whether cyclists have a place on the streets. (Although under the law, they have every right to use the roads, and every obligation to obey the same traffic rules as drivers.)
Those who knew bicyclists who've been killed on the roads will surely never forget those individuals, and the rest of the traveling public shouldn't, either.
Road Q
Question: "I have just moved into an apartment community on Mona Lisa Road between Magee and Ina roads, and I have to walk to and from the Sun Tran Express bus twice a day during the week. I am wondering if there are any plans to make sidewalks on either or both sides of the street. I don't like to walk on the shoulders because there are small rocks and it can get slippery, so I walk along the white line on the edge of the asphalt. This can be equally as dangerous because cars speed by. And because there are few lights on the street, the drivers may not see a walker until the last minute," Lynda Nuñez wrote.
Answer: The county has no plans to install sidewalks on North Mona Lisa Road between West Magee and West Ina roads, said Annabelle Quihuis, spokeswoman for the Pima County Department of Transportation. The county plans to do a regional study on sidewalk needs, including access to bus stops, she said. "This area will be indicated as higher priority for the provision of sidewalks," she said.
