BUILD.RIDE.PROTECT

Another hot season is upon us and the high riding season is winding down. Every year it seems like the number of local and visiting mountain bikers (and other users) on Tucson trails continues to grow at a faster rate than our singletrack resources do. This puts stress on our already crowded trail systems and promotes the likelihood of user conflict between mountain bikers and other trail users. For that reason SDMB continued the Be Cool outreach campaign during the 2018/2019 winter riding season.

Between October and May, SDMB held 10 outreach events at many of the major county trailheads, including Sweetwater Preserve, Genser/Starr Pass, Gabe Zimmerman, Golder Ranch/50-year, the Tortolita Preserve, and even Oracle State Park. This totaled over 80 hours of collective effort between SDMB board members and additional volunteers (special thanks to the Oro Valley Mountain Bike Team!). We handed out over 500 bike bells (!!!), countless stickers, and much information to riders and non-riders alike. We reminded everyone of proper trail etiquette, of which users have the right-of-way on trail, and how to respect the trail when conditions are less than ideal.

The overall feedback from both riders and other trail users this season was overwhelmingly positive, with many comments about how courteous riders have been recently: yielding to non-mountain bikers as appropriate, using bike bells or calling out when riding up from behind, notifying other users of how many additional riders there are in the group, and generally being friendly and courteous. This goes a long way towards continued public acceptance of mountain bikers retaining full access to all non-wilderness trails in the greater Tucson region. Kudos to all SDMB members for supporting these efforts with your membership dollars!

We've got a lot in store for next season, with new initiatives and many more outreach events planned! So be on the lookout for ambassadors at your favorite local trailhead, and remember to Be Cool out on the trail! 

 As a reminder the Be Cool campaign has three components:

1) "Slow your Roll" - control your speed, especially on trails with with short sight-lines

2) "Respect Others" - yielding to uphill riders and all other trail users, and

3) "Pay Attention" - watch out for other trail users at all times and don't ride up on someone at Mach 5, always use a bell to let other users know you are approaching.

For more information on Be Cool click here.

If you are interested in helping out or getting involved with the Be Cool campaign or other SDMB advocacy initiatives, please email advocacy@sdmb.org.