Tucson Motorists

Jonmichael · Post by **Jonmichael** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:03 am

Do I need to ride on straight headers? Maybe flashing lights and siren will grab their attention. Certainly the reason for their ignorance is unknown, but it is clear that you must keep your eyes open. In December alone I braked, swerved, and honked at the unaware drivers..

Its not like I'm sneaking around in their blind spot or taking fast turns or making abrupt stops. I follow the defensive driving guidelines, flash my brakes a couple times before I stop, and make my self noticeable to the drivers.

Still, they merge, turn, cut off, and nearly rear end you.

Us scooter motorists must be one of a kind. Because without a metal box or loud Hog engine to keep us safe, all we have are wits and reflexes... maybe even a 6th sense?

PeterC · Post by **PeterC** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:00 pm

Tucson does indeed present some interesting riding challenges. In addition to the crumbling infrastructure, there are the indigenous cage drivers - blind and deaf retired folk, drunks and druggies and genetically challenged locals who haven't a clue, plus spandexed bicyclists with an entitlement complex. Add to this a quantity of unlicensed and uninsured illegal aliens, plus "winter visitors" with senile dementia, and you have the perfect recipe for a demolition derby.

Keys · Post by **Keys** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 4:42 pm

Trust me...the Tucson drivers are not any worse than the drivers in either Sedona or Flagstaff. I've often thought (when riding through Sedona) that if any higher level of discourtesy or self-absorbsion is invented, it will be invented in Sedona. Flagstaff is just filled with empty-headed college students to whom the phone call they are involved in or the conversation they are involved in is WAAAAYY more important that the job at hand...driving!!!

--Keys

Howardr · Post by **Howardr** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:23 am

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've ridden my scooters almost 15k miles in the last 18 months or so and have had perhaps a half dozen incidents where someone came close enough to hitting me for me to be concerned at all.
Prior to the scooter, I was a bicycling commuter and had a similar experience. I have always contended that if you think Tucson drivers are especially bad, I don't think you've driven too many other places. If anything, I would rate them as average. In general, I think people are people and the percentage of bad/distracted drivers is pretty universal, but, I'm probably wrong.

Ride safe out there guys,

Howard

pimaCanyon · Post by **pimaCanyon** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:11 am

Tucson is unique at least in my experience of city driving, and I've driven in lots of cities: Seattle/Bellevue, San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, LA, San Diego...

What's unique about Tucson is that there are no crosstown freeways. Instead, there's a grid of major surface streets 1 mile apart, 4 lanes or wider, speed limit 40 or 45, all with high traffic volume. Getting from one side of town to the other without using these major arterials is difficult (but I plan to do some map study and see if I can scope out a few good east/west and north/south routes that avoid the arterials--anyone else done this? If so, what do you recommend?)

Even though I've driven in lots of other cities, that driving was in a cage or on a bicycle. Been on the new scoot about a month now and I have yet to drive it on one of the major arterials. I live on the west side, so my riding has been west of I-10, up to Gates Pass, around residential neighborhoods north of Grant (Ironwood) and west of Silverbell.

Some day soon I will say a prayer and venture east of I-10, baptism by fire. Maybe I'll make a full day of it, head all the way across town and up (or partway up) Mt Lemmon, and then back again.

Howardr · Post by **Howardr** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:04 am

Have you checked out the Sky Island Riders new web site at, of course,

skyislandriders.com ? The entire website was just re-done for the new year. Much improved, I think.

We are having our January ride out on the west side. Come on out.

I agree that the lack of any freeways does make Tucson unique. however, there are so many major streets, that gridlock, like you find on major freeways in cities like LA, Kansas City etc, are almost unheard of. It seems like they thin out the traffic, rather than concentrating it on the freeway.

A good, scooter friendly east=west road is Pima/Elm. It only goes as far west as Campbell, but it runs all the way to Tanque Verde, which takes you straight to Mt Lemmon Highway (aka the Sky Island Scenic By-way). 29th street is pretty good as well, but only runs from Alvernon to Wilmot. 5th/6th street is pretty good as well, as is Fort Lowell.
Good North/South streets are mostly the ones that lay between the "mile" streets. Ask this question on our local board and you'll likely get some other good answers.

Hope to see you around,

Howard

Dean F · Post by **Dean F** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:09 am

pimaCanyon wrote:Been on the new scoot about a month now and I have yet to drive it on one of the major arterials.

After another month, 45mph will not be fast enough!

pimaCanyon · Post by **pimaCanyon** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:45 am

Dean F wrote:
pimaCanyon wrote:Been on the new scoot about a month now and I have yet to drive it on one of the major arterials.
After another month, 45mph will not be fast enough!

heh... Yeah, at first I was uncomfortable on Silverbell because the speed limit there is 45 (north of Grant). I'd ride 35 or 40 tops, and if a cager loomed in fast on the rearview, I'd look for a place to turn off and let him pass. Now I'm okay on Silverbell doing 45 (or 50 on my speedometer which I'm guess is really only 45). This is a good thing because I live just west of Silverbell, so I have to use that road to get anywhere.

pimaCanyon · Post by **pimaCanyon** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:48 am

Howardr wrote:Have you checked out the Sky Island Riders new web site at, of course,

skyislandriders.com ? ...

A good, scooter friendly east=west road is Pima/Elm. It only goes as far west as Campbell, but it runs all the way to Tanque Verde, which takes you straight to Mt Lemmon Highway (aka the Sky Island Scenic By-way). 29th street is pretty good as well, but only runs from Alvernon to Wilmot. 5th/6th street is pretty good as well, as is Fort Lowell.
Good North/South streets are mostly the ones that lay between the "mile" streets. Ask this question on our local board and you'll likely get some other good answers.

Hope to see you around,

Howard

Thanks, Howard. Yes, I have looked at SkyIslandRiders, but thanks for the reminder. I'll see what other riders there say about reasonably safe crosstown routes. And thanks for the route suggestions you made. I had already considered 6th, but hadn't thought of Pima and Elm. The others sound good too.