Best of Tucson 1996: Best Bike Route

Best Bike Route

Mountain Avenue

READERS' PICK: Mountain Avenue, north of the UA, is one of those great ideas you can't quite believe your city government actually accomplished. What went wrong with the rest of the city? We need more routes like this. Lots more! Hundreds of bicyclists use this artery daily, enjoying the safety of the divided use pathways and the pleasant relief of abundant art/landscaping. Besides university students, it's fun to see regulars riding to work and back. We've noticed the smart people live off of the north end of this bike route so they can catch a wind-assisted, free ride home on many a summer's eve.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Rillito River Parkway, between Campbell Avenue and La Cholla Boulevard.

STAFF PICK: Forget, for a moment, that only about 15 people can make regular use of the multi-million dollar Aviation Highway. Say what? You know, the highway that currently runs from the freight train hub to the northwest side of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base--a couple of Tucson commuter hot-spots. If, for some reason, you find yourself on a bicycle wanting to ride from the Ford Restaurant Supply store on Campbell Avenue to your idling A-10 tank destroyer on the airfield, pause and consider your unique circumstance in the cosmos. Then hop on your pedal pusher and take the Aviation Bike path! This is no measly painted line on the street separating you from certain death beneath the wheels of a bus driven by a disgruntled city employee. This is an honest-to-god road for bikes, complete with its own entrances and exits, water fountains and even permanent wall maps. It's a bike causeway bypassing some of the worst bicycle intersections in the city, like 22nd Street and Campbell Avenue. Never mind that, because of its diagonal course, for every two feet we traveled east we went a foot south out of our way. It's good to see the city putting some money where its mouth is on the issue of bicycle commuting. Now, if they could only put some bike paths where the people are, like heading down Broadway, they'd be on to something.