Hidden Hills Feedback

I received the following E-mail today (May 31, 2011) about efforts to keep the non-motorized vehicle access open to Hidden Hills. I have not published his contact information to keep him from getting spammed by Web crawlers, but anyone who wants to contact him can get his info through me. -- JQ

Jack, you have done a wonderful job of describing the problems and the history of the easement. It is extremely important for Scottsdale to maintain the easement. For that reason, even a temporary closure would set a terrible precedent, and make it unlikely to ever reopen.

At the meeting last Thursday of the Trails Subcommittee of the Scottsdale Transportation Commission, no immediate decision was made. They agreed to have an open forum at the next meeting (in three months) to hear public comment on the issue.

We must convince the city that we, the "cycling community", can reasonably police ourselves to be good citizens. At the Saturday meeting, five cycling groups were represented and all agreed to participate in the following manner. We still need to include more groups.

1. Begin educating our individual groups, as well as all others we can contact, to obey the traffic laws and be respectful of the private community we are being allowed to enter.

2. Establish a "Courtesy Patrol" for peak hours during the week. Ideally, each cycling group will volunteer to take a week at a time.

3. Make contact with all levels of city government to insure the voice of the cycling community is being heard.

The city's plan and subsequent decisions have made this .7 mile the only way to connect to Fountain Hills and beyond. While we don't know when the remaining .4 will open, we must not lose what the city has planned and paid for over the last 15 years.

Thanks,
Preston Miller

May 23, 2011 - Hidden Hills Heats up Again

The residents of Hidden Hills are once again trying to get cyclists banned from their gated community, and this time, it looks as if they might succeed, at least until the planned connection for non-motorized vehicles from Scottsdale via Hidden Hills to Fountain Hills becomes a reality.

For those of you who are not familiar with Hidden Hills, it is a gated community at the end of a street called Via Linda in North Scottsdale, just a short distance as the crow flies from Fountain Hills. It is a popular destination for individual riders and informal riding groups, especially on Saturday mornings. At one time, large number of cyclists used to cycle to the top of the hill inside Hidden Hills, regroup at the summit cul-de-sac, and then ride back. Some cyclists, a minority, also used the route to do hill repeats, a conditioning technique that involves repeatedly riding up and descending the same hill. In the past year, the number of cyclists entering Hidden Hills has greatly diminished, and the practice of doing hill repeats in the community has all but disappeared.

As a result of the decreased cycle traffic, many cyclists thought that the problem was solved, but in my opinion, as long as a single cyclist has access to their community, some of the residents of Hidden Hills are going to react as if they were being invaded by Mongol hordes.

Some history: Before the community of Hidden Hills was built, the City of Scottsdale and Town of Fountain Hills had planned that Via Linda would be extended to provide an alternative to Shea Boulevard for motorized travel between those two communities. That plan was abandoned, but both Fountain Hills and Scottsdale still want to use the route to provide cyclists a safe travel corridor between the two communities. The City of Scottsdale, in exchange for granting permission for the gated community to be constructed, obtained an easement for non-motorized vehicles (meaning bicycles) to travel between Scottsdale and Fountain Hills. When someone buys a house in Hidden Hills, that person agrees to the easement and should know that bicycles will be using the community’s main street.

The developer that built Hidden Hills and also controls the land in Fountain Hills just up the hill from it was supposed to build the bike route. However, the real estate crisis hit, and the developer put plans on hold. In the meantime, cyclists were given access to Hidden Hills, even though there is a dead end at the top of the hill, which means that cyclists who pedal up the hill have no choice but to turn around and ride back down.

Hidden Hills homeowners soon got sick of bicycles traveling on their private street and have spent years lobbying the City of Scottsdale to break the agreement and abandon the easement, which the City has so far refused to do. To address the homeowners’ stated concerns, the City paid for the installation of four speed bumps, which have dissuaded most, but not all, of the cyclists from riding the hill. However, those who still do ride the hill often descend at a higher speed than formerly in order to have enough momentum to “bunny hop” the speed bumps, and an occasional cyclist circumvents the speed bumps by riding on the sidewalk. Many cyclists now descend the hill at speeds approaching those of the residents in their cars and SUVs.

A squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the Hidden Hills Homeowners Association has done a lot of squeaking about even the smaller number of pesky cyclists who dare to ride past their houses, backing their complaints with a mixture of truth and fiction about the problems that cyclists supposedly cause. Cyclists do not play loud music, they seldom litter, and although many (perhaps most) of them do exceed the 20 mile-per-hour speed limit, they travel no faster than the residents themselves in their motor vehicles. On the face of it, we would seem to be nice people to have around, but in these days, hating groups of people (immigrants, liberals, politicians of the other party, just about anyone who is different) has become the socially acceptable substitute for racism. Among some people, the mere sight of a group of “spandex clad” cyclists raises the same ire as an Obama supporter at a Tea Party convention.

Point persons on the debate for the City of Scottsdale are Transportation Planner Susan Conklu and Senior Transportation Planner Reed Kempton. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with each of them on May 19 and came away convinced that the Hidden Hills bicycle access will be shut down, at least until the connection to Fountain Hills is built.

At the beginning of our conversation, Reed Kempton described himself as a “cycling advocate”, but as we talked, it became apparent that he is just as fed up with the cyclists who ride to Hidden Hills as I am with the whining, selfish, and boorish behavior of some of the community’s residents. Apparently, a number of cyclists treated Mr. Kempton with contempt when he was out at Hidden Hills during the height of the controversy, and that ill treatment has soured him on the whole lot of us. It may seem unjust to stereotype a whole group of people because of the boorish actions of a few of its members, but that is how human nature works.

To give Mr. Kempton his due, some of the things he says make sense. For example, he makes a persuasive argument for closing cyclists’ access to Hidden Hills until the Fountain Hills connection is built. Contrary to what I believed before I spoke to him, he has also convinced me that we may be doing ourselves more harm than good by continuing to ride Hidden Hills.

Stating his argument as well as I can in my own words, his reasoning is as follows: The only purpose of the easement through Hidden Hills is to permit cyclists to travel to and from Fountain Hills. Since there is not yet a connection to Fountain Hills, cyclists are not using the easement for its stated purpose, and therefore cyclists presently have no legal right to enter Hidden Hills over the residents’ objections. The logical action is for cyclists to stop riding inside the Hidden Hills gate until the Fountain Hills connection is constructed.

I am not skilled at searching for legal documents online, but I did manage to find the following sentence in a contract between the City of Scottsdale and the developer. To me, this sentence is unclear as to whether or not cyclists have access to Hidden Hills until the connection to Fountain Hills is built, but there may be other documents with more explicit language.

“The City [of Scottsdale] has acquired a public non-motorized easement through the Hidden Hills Subdivision which provides the only non-motorized alternative to She Boulevard between the City of Scottsdale and the Town of Fountain Hills.”

Mr. Kempton states that if cyclists continue to ride within Hidden Hills, the Homeowners Association is likely to approach the Scottsdale City Council to ask that the easement be revoked altogether. Given that the homeowners are well organized, articulate, and vociferous, he thinks they stand a good chance of persuading the City Council to do their bidding. His opinion is that the “cycling community” should accept the temporary closure of the access to Hidden Hills for cyclists in order to avoid a permanent revocation of the easement.

Of course, there is no “cycling community” that could make such a collective decision. Most of the cyclists who ride Hidden Hills do so as individuals or as part of informal, pick-up rides. There is no cycling organization that has a line of communication to more than a small percentage of the cyclists who ride Hidden Hills. Even Arizona Road Cyclist News, with a circulation of over 400 reaches on a small fraction of the cyclists in the Phoenix area.

It seems logical that if and when the connection is built, cycling traffic through Hidden Hills would increase by a large factor, and that would anger the Hidden Hills residents even more. However, the Hidden Hills Homeowner’s Association might find it harder to shut down a “transportation corridor” than it would be to shut down casual access to a gated community.

Reed Kempton and Susan Conklu are anxious to communicate with cycling groups about the situation. They say they don’t want to spring the closure on the cyclists by surprise, and they both requested that I publish their contact information so that cyclists and especially cycling groups can get in touch with them. Their contact information follows.

A final word: I hope that cyclists who read this do not stereotype the residents of Hidden Hills the way that some of them stereotype us. Not all of the residents hate cyclists, and not all of them approve of the attitude of the Homeowners’ Association. Some of them are nice people, just as we are. :)

Susan Conklu, Transportation Planner
City of Scottsdale
(480) 312-2308
sconklu@scottsdaleaz.gov

Reed Kempton, Senior Transportation Planner
City of Scottsdale
(480) 312-7630
rkempton@scottsdaleaz.gov

Arizona's Stop Signs Could Become Yield Signs

Many of you will remember that last year a bill was introduced in the Arizona State Legislature that would have effectively permitted cyclists to treat stop signs as if they were yield signs. If the bill had become law, cyclists approaching a stop sign would have been required to slow down, and if the intersection had been clear, would have been permitted to proceed through the intersection without coming to a complete stop. The bill made sense, because a cyclist who comes to a complete stop and puts a foot down requires much more time to clear an intersection than does a cyclist who is able to keep both feet on the pedals. However, most non-cyclists do not understand this, so the bill never reached the floor. It was killed in committee on a straight party-line vote after all of the minority Democrats on the committee voted in favor of the bill but every Republican committee member voted to kill it.

Now a new version of bill has been introduced in the house by representative Daniel Patterson, who is a bicycle rider. This bill may overcome the objections of those who consider cyclists to be "Spandex-clad leftist liberals" who demand superior privileges by treating motor vehicles and cyclists equally, giving both classes of road users the right to proceed through a stop sign without coming to a complete stop as long as they are able to safely make it through the intersection without interfering with traffic that has the right-of-way. If the bill is passed, I wonder what purpose stop signs will serve. Why not just change them all to yield signs? Of course, regardless of the law, most motorists and almost all cyclists already treat stop signs as if they were yield signs, so the proposed change to the law could be viewed as an attempt to make the law reflect reality.

If you would like to read the bill and follow its progress through the Arizona State Legislature, you can do so by clicking here.

New pictures on Geezer Website

Pictures of some the Wheezers and Geezers before and after the 100 Ride for Jim Stenholm have been added to the Wheezers and Geezers Website. The URL is http://www.mlr.biz/geezers/. Click on the "Photo Gallery" tab at the left of the screen. -- Jack Quinn

Republic Article on Cindie Holub's Death

The Arizona Republic has published an article on its azcentral.com Website about Cindie Holub's death that all cyclists should read. Cindie Holub was the cyclist who died after being struck from behind by a Waste Management garbage truck while cycling on Dynamite Boulevard near Alma School Road in Scottsdale. According to the article, driver Fernando Jiménez has been ticketed for violatiing the three-foot law. I wonder if he shouldn't have also been charged with manslaughter.

To read the online article, click here.

We're gonna be on TV!

The Maricopa Country Association of Governments (MAG) wants to include the Wheezers and Geezers ride as part of a publicity video that will be distributed to various TV outlets to promote the Valley as a tourist destination. Our job is to show the benefits of cycling.

I spoke to Jason Stephens of MAG on the phone, and we tentatively set up the day and time as Saturday February 6 on the 7:30 a.m. ride. I write tentatively, because the weather is supposed to be unsettled through March. I'm making a note to myself to send out an E-mail to the Geezers' mailing list a few days before the date as a reminder.

It would be nice if as many people as possible would show up for the 7:30 ride that week, either 7:30 at the roundabout or 7:15 at the Camelback Inn. Those who have Geezer jerseys are requested to wear them. (Let's hope that it will be warm enough that we can squeeze the jerseys on top of the other layers of clothing).

In addition to filming the ride, Jason wants to interview a doctor about the health benefits of riding and someone who commutes to work on a bike. I don't know who among the Geezers commutes to work by bike, so we need some volunteers.

Jack Quinn

Geezers Jerseys and two Rides for Geezers

Three topics: the long sleeved jerseys and two rides that many Geezers plan to participate in.

First the Jerseys

Karen is sending in the order to Voler for the long-sleeved jerseys on Monday., October 19, 2009. Because she needs to write a check to send with the order, she would be grateful if everyone who has ordered a jersey would pay. We don't want Karen to kite a check and end up in prison, because that means that Dave Weiss would be back in charge, and you remember what that was like. The jerseys cost $67 with the hidden zipper and $69 with the full-length zipper.

A ride for Jim Stenholm, next Saturday October 24

A number of Geezers have expressed interest in doing this ride as a group next Saturday. The ride will not only serve to remember cyclist Jim Stenholm, but it should also help relations with the Scottsdale and Phoenix Police Departments, which are helping to put on the ride. Geezers are requested to ride in their Geezer jerseys or, for those who have them, a Consumers jersey, as Jim was a member of the Phoenix Consumer Cycle Club. You don't have to register in advance; just show up and sign a waver.

As its name implies, this ride will be held in memory of Jim Stenholm, an avid cyclists, a great husband and dad, and a Phoenix police officer who died unexpectedly on October 24, 2008. Jim loved riding his bike, and there is no better way to remember him than to go out and ride our bikes on the anniversary of his death.

In an age when most supported rides are fund raisers with entry fees between $40 and $100, it's nice to find a ride that's free and even includes free food and free swag and whose only requirement is that you sign a release form. Well, to be honest, there is an optional $25 donation to the 100 Club if you feel the ride was worth it. The 100 Club is a not-for-profit organization that helps police officers fire fighters, other first responders and their families when they are in need. If you make this optional donation, this ride will still be a bargain.

Bring the entire family, as there is probably a ride option that will suit everyone: a 100-kilometer ride that I suspect will suit most Geezerettes and Geezers, a short 8-mile ride that should be ideal for many families, and a mini course for riders 10 years old and younger. All rides leave from the Desert Horizon Precinct at 56th Street and Paradise Lane (16030 North 56th Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85254).

Riders need to arrive at least one half hour in advance of their start times in order to fill out and sign a waver. As an incentive to sign up on time, the first 150 riders will receive a free ball cap.

The start times, which have been calculated so that we can all arrive back at the starting point at more or less the same time and have lunch together, are as follows:

8:00 a.m. 100 kilometer/62 mile ride. (To be honest, the route is actually about 92 kilometers or 57 miles.) This ride will have a motorcycle escort.

10:30 a.m. Short course (about 8 miles) This ride will have a ride leader.

11:30 a.m. The Little 100 Mini Course for cyclists 10 years old and younger.

12:00 noon. Free chow and good companionship
.
Maps will be provided at the start, but to get a look at the route (there may be minor changes by ride time), go to this URL: http://www.mapmyride.com/view_route?r=325125305521754256 (You may have to copy the URL and paste it into your browser's address bar to get to the correct map.)

ABC's McDowell Mountain Century, November 14

The other ride is almost a month away, but many riders may want to register in advance in order to avoid the late fee. Most of the Geezers will ride the 62-mile option, and many plan to ride as a group.

The Arizona Bicycle Club's annual McDowell Century takes place this year on November 14 in Scottsdale, Rio Verde, and Fountain Hills and starts at Serano Park, 56th Street and Sweetwater in Scottsdale. There are three versions of the ride: a 100-mile century, a 62-mile metric century, and a 30-mile half-metric century. Members of ABC, GABA, and Bullshifters pay $35 for the event, and non-members pay $45. Tandems are $45 for members per bike and $60 for non-members. After November 1, there is a $5 late fee for individual riders and a $15 late fee for tandems. (When I checked it, the ride's Website confusingly gave the late fee dates of April 15 and August 10, both of which must be incorrect. I reported that to the ABC, and hopefully the error will be fixed by the time you read this.) The entry fee includes sag stops with lots of munchies and insurance. The first 130 riders will also receive ABC logo insulated Polar water bottles.

Check-in and late registration open onsite at 6:30 a.m. The century ride leaves at 7:30, and the metric and half-metric century rides leave at 8:00. (Cautious riders will sneak off a bit early and avoid the dangerous mass starts.)

To access the ride's Website and/or to register online, click here.