Riding my bike from the Phoenix airport to Culdesac in Tempe (ride-along series)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ธ.ค. 2023
- Experience this 7-mile (11 km) ride from the Sky Harbor airport to Culdesac, a car-free rental apartment development in Tempe, AZ, with units situated around vibrant courtyards that become the outdoor living rooms and the center of the community.
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Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- Culdesac: culdesac.com/
- Culdesac mini-tour w/ Alexys Still: • Culdesac Tempe: A car-...
- My Ride from Culdesac to the Airport: • Join me as I ride to t...
- Culdesac Art video: • Take a Look Inside the...
- Brompton Vincita Bag Link: vincita.cc/?ref=6zadxp5o 10% Off Coupon Code: ActiveTowns
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
Resources used during the production of this video:
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2023
Great seeing Tempe from your perspective. We live in Tempe and while you were talking about the white stripe that poses as a bike lane on Apache Blvd, I was clapping along with my wife. Nice new apartments and Tempe had every opportunity to do this right. The roads were empty when you were riding compared to when school is in session. So cool you did this ride from the airport!!!
Yay! Thanks so much for watching. With advice from staff at Culdesac my return ride to the airport a couple days later was much more comfortable... stay tuned. Cheers! John
Would be easy to make those protected bike lanes on Apache Boulevard, set a good example for the rest of the city.
Yup! Just get ‘er done!
WOW! this community looks amazing holy damn! Thanks for showing us once again John 💪
You are quite welcome! A lot more to come on Culdesac. Thank you so much for watching, 😀
You were fortunate not to encounter a stopped freight train on the tracks you had to cross twice. I've had that happen during my ride and have then had to turn around and detour via Washington Street. Bike bridges over the tracks like the one recently built in another Phoenix suburb, Gilbert, would help, but they're expensive projects. The place where it's unclear how to proceed is the Phoenix/Tempe boundary. That change in jurisdication, along with the presence of the railroad tracks, creates a significant discontinuity in an otherwise pleasant and useful path.
Thanks so much for watching and for this information. Yeah, this all makes sense and is what I sort of expected. Great point on the stopped freight train. Unfortunately a cooperative railroad company is a rarity these days, so their participation in facilitating safe passage appears to be in doubt and that is a shame. Cheers! John
I recently purchased a folding bike to carry in my semi to use to ride from Phoenix to NW Scottsdale. Once my car that I have parked down there dies, I don't intend on replacing it. Plan on using the bike and public transit combo. Haven't riden a city bus in the valley since the early 70's with my great grandmother to go to Woolworths. I'm not sure how it works nowadays to use the bus system for payment.
I haven't owned a bike since my last bike was stolen in 1994. Will have to get into shape to ride that distance.
I can ride pathways for a majority of the ride from Phoenix to Scottsdale, which is good.
That’s great! Pathways and quiet residential streets are the key. My ride back to the airport will feature much more of these. Thanks for watching. Stay safe out there. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Look forward to the return trip video. 👍
Now that brings back memories. I too road a bus with my grandmother from Virginia Beach to Norfolk, VA. to go to Woolworths. I was 5 and it was quite an adventure. We were going there to look for a game that involved ghosts. They didn't have it but the trip was real fun. Thanks for reminding me of that.
Thank you John. I knew about Tempe, but never seen it before. Strangely the bicycle infrastructure reminds me a lot of how it was when I used to cross the border into Belgium in the 1980s. Obviously the environment is totally different, but the narrow paths along the bigger roads and the large concrete slabs outside the build-up area looked very familiar.
You are quite welcome. Yep. Not surprising, as car-centric designs seem to be eerily familiar and similar everywhere. I will say that my ride back to the airport was much more pleasant. Stay tuned for that. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Will do John. Enjoy the Holidays.
Nice tour. When I lived in Scottsdale, I'd ride 20 miles south into Tempe to visit a friend and 20 back (a bit uphill), but about half on paved bike trails. When I got into Tempe, I'd ride the sidewalk, because there was no way I felt comfortable on the street. It may have been ticket-able, but I didn't ever get one. Riding from the airport though, well done... even if not on the best route, but hey, you got there in one piece!
Thanks so much! Yeah, the return trip to the airport a couple days later proved to be much nicer. Cheers! John
Looks good, can't wait for the tour, but what kind of bad-brand name is Culdesac?
Hehe... as Urbanists we tend to view the word and concept of a Culdesac with destain because we understand the negative impacts on mobility, but for most of society, a cul-de-sac represents a delightful, car-lite, slow street environment where it's safe for residents to come together and for the kids to play... Perhaps this is a tongue-in-cheek play on words... stay tuned to learn more. 😉
Can't wait for next episode. @@ActiveTowns
@@markcramer14 Good to hear... 😀
This is a fair representation of my city's infrastructure. There are some good canalside paths, and also some quiet-street bike boulevards south of downtown, but it's not that well-connected a network at the moment.
@@sdorn Thanks for watching and the comment... yeah, I end up exploring a bit of the neighborhood residential streets during my stay and find a much more comfortable route back to the airport for my return trip a couple days later... stay tuned. Cheers! John
There is a really nice, wide trail on the south side of the Salt River on the south side of that bridge you rode over at the 18:46 mark. My daughter just bought a house right across the street from the access to the trail and it is about a 4-mile ride to Mill Ave. Really, she doesn't even need a car, everything is within a few miles ride from her house. We rode on that path last January and onto bike lane, you took down Mill Ave. to go out to eat. I really like riding in Phoenix. The drivers seem to be really courteous there.
Yay! Yes, that’s precisely part of my “surprise” route that I take on the way back to the airport… stay tuned. 😀
@@ActiveTowns Sometime if you have the chance you should go check out a town just north of Phoenix called Anthem. It is a beautiful place with a wonderful network of trails. Our car broke down there on a Sunday a couple of years ago and we had to spend 3 days there while the car was in the shop. We rode until we couldn't ride anymore. Our legs were so sore. We just couldn't stop the trails were so nice. And there is a wonderful park there in the town with bridges and ponds connecting to all the trails. It's all pretty new, though.
Fun! Yeah, I'll have to put that on my future visit list. Thanks!
Driving 7 miles in the Phoenix metro area typically takes 10-15 minutes. There's a reason almost everyone is driving.
Yep, pretty much. Which of course does little to help with reversing car dependency.
Cool channel, subscribed! I would love to have community like Cul de sac in Orlando area! I already commute on ebikes for 3 years, no car yes it is very doable and well!
Ebikes are everywhere in Florida especially by Tampa, all those beach towns. Thank you
Yay! Thanks so much for the Sub. Welcome to my merry band of Active Towns Ambassadors. btw I do have a handful of videos from the State of Florida, including a couple from your neck of the woods in Orlando - My interview with Emily Hanna wth Bike Walk Central Florida: th-cam.com/video/wgM3JXf5iTI/w-d-xo.html and my second interview with Professor Natalia Barbour: th-cam.com/video/LWxLz-qOcqY/w-d-xo.html Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns
Awesome for the links! Will watch for sure. Thanks again
@@MrMtr999 You are quite welcome. It's an honor to have you following along. 🙌
OMG! one of the reasons I bought my Brompton is because my daughter lives in Gilbert AZ....and I want to fly from Florida(where I live) to Gilbert with it. Can you show us a video of how you pack your brompton for the plane?
Cool! Sure, I'll have to do an updated comprehensive traveling with Brompton video one of these days... In the meantime, there's not really much to the packing for air travel... I just put it into my Vincita Sightseer travel bag and check it in. It comes in just below the 50 lb normal baggage weight limit, so it doesn't trigger any heavy bag fees.
vincita.cc/collections/transport-bag/products/sightseer-3-5-travel-set
You may like my other Brompton Airport Videos in the Playlist: bit.ly/airportcycling
Thanks so much for watching and for tuning into today's Livestream with Duzer.
Cheers!
John
Two minutes into the trip, you're already crossing a super-highway. They need to fix the roads.
I'm following along on a map. When you pass the flour mill, the big building on the right has the Tempe Tourism Office. if you drop in there you might be able to pick up a paper map of the city showing the main attractions. I love paper maps.
Are those bike gutters too narrow? I didn't see any cars parked in them. What good is a bike lane if you can't even park your Escalade?
The police substation is the Property Disposal Publications office. Drop in and see if they're selling a surplus armored assault vehicle.
Hehe 🤣 Classic comments, Claude. Stay tuned the return trip is a winner. Cheers! John
That's not a super-highway, that's 44th Street 😂
I followed along on Google maps and it appears to me that you needlessly chose just about the most dangerous and unpleasant route through Tempe to Culdesac. Was your GPS set to car routing or maybe it doesn't include bike paths in the mapping database for that area. There is a pedestrian bridge you could have crossed instead of that horrible unprotected Tempe bridge crossing and there appear to be lots of pleasant quiet residential streets running parallel with Apache Blvd to the north. Why did you choose to ride out there on the nasty stroads!?
Excellent question and points... the problem with most bicycle routing programs is that they default to the "quickest" route versus the safest or most enjoyable. Stay tuned for my return ride to the airport where I take a route that is super comfortable the entire way. Thanks so much for tuning in and for the comment. Cheers! John
Apache looks to have most of the stores. Shouldn't a person on a bike be able to safely travel to spend money.
@@jake79heiser Yep, precisely!
I think I would put some grass where you was at the beginning of the video near that cannel and put some seating their for pedestrians. And towards the end of the video I would do one of two things I would ether make that road a 30mph area or put some crash barriers up like you see on the motorways to protect the people on foot. I do like the way that the street planners have tried to encued everyone on that route. I think I would like to see more trees just to try and sock up some of that loud traffic noise. I don't know what you call them other their but I would also put a few traffic islands where the road is very wide just to make it safer for everyone. But over all that was a good effort on the street planners part. Them cars looked very close to you maybe it was your camera but it looked a bit dangerous. great video
Landscaping would be nice... it is the desert though, so no water for grass... slower speeds and vehicle lanes are a must... thanks for tuning in for the ride. Cheers! John
I watch lot of your videos from the USA and the Netherlands and everytime i was watching one in the USA i felt i miss something but couldnt put my finger on till now i think, the trees we have more trees in the Netherlands or its the watercanals lol now im confuse myself again.
Well in january i gonne build a big greenhouse in Long Island so then i will see it with my own eyes and maybe i was completly wrong.
Keep m coming John i like your videos a lot.
I suspect you may see a fair number of trees there on the East Coast. Hopefully you can find some cycle paths or trails. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns It must be the canals i think ;p we have way to much here :)
@@dimrrider9133 🙂
The first part of the trail looks nice and clear, but I wouldn't feel safe biking there alone as a woman. I didn't see any safety buttons to press for an emergency, and it's not through a well-populated area with people walking around. It looks like fun with friends or a partner though.
Yes. That portion of the canal path definitely feels a bit too isolated - be sure to watch my return ride from Culdesac to the airport - I take a different riverside/lakeside path in the earlier miles, eventually reconnecting with the canal path at the end. The Salado River path and Tempe Town Lake sections were well-maintained and well-lit and just had a much more comfortable feel to them. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
Okay, I'll check out that one next, it sounds like a fun time!@@ActiveTowns
@@fullyshannon I hope you enjoy it. 😀
Despite the Phoenix area's reputation for terrible car dependence, it's new developments like the Tempe cul-de-sac that give me hope for the future.
P.S.: metric (aka reasonable) measurement system (including celsius) is superior! WTF is an "ounce"?
I hear ya! 🤣 More details to come on the development.Thnx! 😀
it's indeed at least better that the reputation Phoenix has, but then this is the campus town, not the city proper… And then only a narrow painted bike gutter alongside two giant yet empty car lanes.
Did you bring your own bike with you ? Are there any bike rental - bike share bikes available at the airport ? I think I saw scooter share in the background when you started biking.
Yes. I had my travel bike (Brompton folding bike) with me. Not sure about bike share at the airport, but yeah, I think I saw some scooters in the area. Thanks so much for watching. Cheers! John
How much nicer would Apache Blvd. be if there was one lane for cars, a nice curb in between it a wide bike and pedestrian lane, and the buildings being closer together and closer to the sidewalk. Oh, I've probably been watching too many videos of Amsterdam. But really the city would look a lot nicer and be more efficient if the buildings were not so separated and with all that asphalt for parking lots. Phoenix and surrounding cities make for such a huge, sprawling area and really spread out. Another thing I don't like about the Phoenix area and Denver is all the dead areas along the highways that just collect weeds and trash. So much wasted space.
Hehe 😂 Exactly! There is no reason for this scale and waste.😀
@@ActiveTowns What a change, though, when you got to the Culdesac development. So much more inviting. That brick-paved square is so nice. I'll be down there in April and I'm going to go check it out on my bike.
or just reduce the lanes to "normal" with (11 feet) and use the additional space to build a protected bike lane…
You mentioned having luggage. Is there a rack on your bike? Just a backpack?
I typically strap my luggage to my rear rack on my Brompton - my computer and camera gear are in the front integrated Brompton bag. I say typically because that's what I usually do; however, on this trip, I managed to forget the strap that I use to secure my luggage to the said rack, so yeah, I just wore the small backpack for this relatively short trip. Thanks so much for watching... stay tuned for the tour of the Culdesac complex and my much more relaxed ride back to the airport. Cheers! John
@@ActiveTowns Thank you! I’m a subscriber, so I’ll see your other videos when you post them. I’ve seen your video interview with the Brompton CEO. Do you have a general video about flying/traveling by bike? I often just rent in the local city, but I’m very curious about investing in a Brompton.
@@jonathanjmacmillan Yes, I sure do... sort of. Here it is: th-cam.com/video/IH15oX9sMzQ/w-d-xo.html I really should do a specific video focussed on traveling by train, transit, and plane with the Brommie. Yes, Bromptons are fabulous investments if you like having a dependable bike with you when you travel as I do. It has paid for itself many times over in bike rental fee savings and since it is small enough, in avoiding airline bike box fees.
Hey bro nice video. But what a horrible ride to make, Noisy, disjointed segments of the trail, traffic,traffi, traffic, big buildings, mega congestion. Why would anyone want to live there!?
Thanks! Be sure to watch my return trip to the airport. It was a much better route back along the river, lake, and canal. Thank you for watching and for the comment. Cheers! John