Murphy says she rides the bus quite often, and Gage loves it. The activists point to such cities as Denver, where 16 percent to 18 percent of commuters use bikes, or Davis, Calif., which achieved 27 percent bike ridership by creating car-free corridors.
Experienced cyclists know how to ride defensively on roads designed for cars.
But many commuters say they don't feel secure enough to shuck motor travel in favor of cycling. That's part of the reason the percentage of Tucson-area commuters who ride bikes has remained at a measly 3 percent since the 1970s. Despite Tucson's growing reputation as a bicycle-friendly city, the region has made little progress toward shifting commuters from dirty gasoline to clean pedal power. With only four years to go, even Corbett, who wrote the 1981 plan, admits neither goal will be reached unless local officials find new strategies to make two-wheel commuting safer and easier. The 1990 census found that only 2 percent of Tucson commuters usually ride a bike.