City pedals for platinum, backpedals on 'road diets'

Sep. 4—Like a long-distance race that begins and ends in the same spot, a discussion of Scottsdale bicycle safety and increased riding from Labor Day onward brings the city back to road diets.

The city has tried to backpedal from that contentious term after many residents expressed outrage over trading motor vehicle lanes for bike lanes.

Even though contracts signed for the likes of 68th Street and other lane-reduction projects specifically state "road diet," during several public meetings, elected officials and city staff used terms such as "complete streets" and "road repaving."

Even so, if it is to make the finish-line push from gold status to the rarified air of platinum certification, Scottsdale must grit its teeth and follow advice from the League of American Bicyclists:

"Road diets, lane diets, and traffic calming treatments are important engineering components for addressing safety."

While lauding many aspects of biking in Scottsdale, the national association made it clear the city has work to do to make Scottsdale safer for bikers.

In May, the League of American Bicyclists' Bicycle Friendly America program pegged Scottsdale to its list of 35 cities with "gold" status.

Now, like Tour de France bikers with a yellow jersey on their minds, Scottsdale is dreaming of platinum.

The league gave top-shelf platinum status to only five cities: Portland, Ore.; Davis, Calif.; Madison, Wisc.; and Colorado cities Boulder and Fort Collins.

It may be a long way to platinum for Scottsdale, however.

The league's "key outcomes" on a 2019 report card was a door-to-the-face for Scottsdale.

According to the association, only 0.95% of Scottsdale commuters bike to work — compared to 13.6% for the average platinum city.

Over the previous reporting period, Scottsdale recorded 641 crashes per 10,000 bike commuters — over six times the platinum cities average.

Most frightening of all, Scottsdale's 5.24 number of crash fatalities per 10,000 bike commuters was 13 times the platinum cities' average of 0.4.

The league's report card provided a few tips for Scottsdale to make it to the next level, including:

"Continue to expand and improve Scottsdale's low-stress on-road bike network and ensure that your community follows a bicycle facility selection criteria that increases separation and protection of bicyclists."

It also says, "Adopt a local comprehensive road safety plan or a Vision Zero policy to create engineering, education, and enforcement strategies to reduce traffic crashes and deaths for all road users, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

"Road diets, lane diets, and traffic calming treatments are important engineering components for addressing safety."

Asked for updated statistics, the city referred to a 2020 study, which analyzed data from 2014 to 2018.

"During the five-year analysis period, there were a total of 378 documented bicycle collisions and 281 documented pedestrian collisions," the Scottsdale report states.

"This correlates to a yearly average of approximately 76 bicycle collisions and 56 pedestrian collisions."

Some key points of the study:

—Of the 378 bicycle collisions, 55 involved hit-and-run collisions.

—October had the highest number of bicycle collisions with 45.

—78% of bicycle collisions occurred during daylight.

—4% of bicycle collisions involved a party that was impaired.

—42% of bicycle collisions did not result in any violation.

—44% of all bicycle collisions occurred while the motorist was making a right turn.

—Bicycle collisions occurred most frequently between 3 and 6 p.m. and on Tuesdays.

—There were three biker fatalities and 49 "serious injuries" as a result of the collisions from 2014-18.

"We have had four bike fatalities between the years 2019 and 2023," added Nathan Domme, Scottsdale's transportation planning manager.

Pedaling to platinum?

"Help Scottsdale become a platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community," the city asked residents via social media at the end of July.

"Public feedback is an important part of the application process. By completing the city's Bicycle Friendly Community survey citizens can help shape future bike activities, amenities and infrastructure in Scottsdale."

The survey was available online through Aug. 25.

The city was initially recognized as a silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community in 2005 — "Scottsdale was the first silver-level community without a university or major college," noted Cristina Lenko, a city spokeswoman.

She said Scottsdale submitted its application for platinum certification last week and should hear back from the League of American Bicyclists by December.

Don Randolph, a biking enthusiast and instructor, said Scottsdale has climbed quite a hill — and he would like to see the city reach the top of the biking mountain.

"I must admit I never thought I would see a day where Scottsdale would reach this level," Randolph said, of the city's current gold status.

"When I moved here 34 years ago, I had been living in Tucson — a platinum biking city if there ever was one, in my opinion."

When he first came to Scottsdale, Randolph would ride with a group from Shea Boulevard to Fountain Hills, taking Rio Verde to Greasewood Flats and returning on Pima Road.

"Within the first month, I found myself writing several branches of agencies tasked with road construction/maintenance," Randolph said.

"Bicyclists simply were a nuisance for drivers and the game of seeing how close you could drive next to a cyclist without hitting them was seen all too often."

While he is "amazed" at how far the city has come, in terms of biker safety, he added, "As far as what Scottsdale could do better, I would say that it suffers from the same illness that most urban environments do: apathy.

"More bicycling events, more education opportunities, more 'presence' is what is needed."

He gets that Scottsdale is a "car city" and likely always will be. "But, much more could be done to create a city you feel safe and accepted in than has been done."

Even so, Randolph said he is proud the city is positioned for a platinum run.

Domme said the application is just one part of the city's push to be better for bikers.

"We are constantly monitoring and evaluating our overall transportation network," he said.

"Regardless of the League of American Bicyclist Application, we collect data to review activity, safety, and enforcement of all transportation modes on Scottsdale's network. The application is simply providing information we have already collected."

Don't call it a ...

In a recent interview, Mark Melnychenko, city Transportation and Streets director, growled at the term "road diet."

"Road diet is where there's a reduction in the width of the road. So that's a changing of infrastructure," he said.

Melnychenko said in Scottsdale, "There's only really one example of a road diet which is infrastructure change. And that was 96th Street north of Shea Boulevard where the curb lines were changed and the street was narrowed."

When it was pointed out Scottsdale has contracts with Maricopa Association of Governments specifically stating projects are for "road diets," Melnychenko refused to give ground.

"Those are MAG terms," he said. "We can have our own terminology — we're a local entity."

On Feb. 8, 2022, Melnychenko sent a letter to MAG, citing the project "68th Street, Thomas Road to Indian School Road."

In requesting to apply for funding, Melnychenko referenced "Project Description: Construct road diet, bike lanes and intersection."

When asked how this lines up with his insistence that the city does not do road diets, the transportation manager said he didn't want to "argue about semantics.

"Does that really change the work that we're doing here in expanding our active transportation system and making our streets safer?" he asked. "Does it really matter?"

Melnychenko also declined to say when the Thomas Road "complete street" project — which some called a road diet in disguise — will come before City Council, which approved preliminary work on the project in the spring.

"We don't have really anything to add on that subject," Melnychenko said. "We don't have a timeline right now for the approval of the project."

According to the city website, "The Thomas Road Complete Street Project will take place in early 2024 and will improve safety and provide a more consistent roadway for those traveling by car, foot, or bicycle between 56th Street and 73rd Street, just east of Scottsdale Road."

The project description said work will include removal of one eastbound motorized vehicle lane to make room for turn lanes and bike lanes.

"The new bike lanes will fill the gap in existing bike lanes on Thomas Road between 73rd Street and 56th Street," according to the city website, "and complete bike lanes on this corridor as well as connect to several intersecting bikeways such as the Crosscut Canal Path, 64th Street and Scottsdale Road bike lanes, as well as upcoming bike lanes on 68th Street."

Regarding 68th Street, several applauded that project, including longtime Scottsdale resident Laurie Stegall.

She emailed Councilman Barry Graham — who voted against funding the 68th Street "road diet."

"I know you don't like the change on 68th Street," Stegall wrote, "but I use this often and, as expected, it hasn't had any impact on traffic."