PHOENIX — Sunday is the fifth annual Rob Dollar Memorial Ride at South Mountain. The ride is in memory of Dollar, who was hit and killed by a driver while cycling on South Mountain in 2017.
The ride is the largest annual fundraiser for the foundation which was created by Dollar's father and best friend. The money raised during the event will be put towards their mission of raising awareness of road safety in the driver and cyclist communities, said foundation VP, John Hogen.
“Working with different cities to bring more safety and awareness campaigns that we’ll fund between doing different billboards, doing additional bike safety videos for both cyclists and drivers," Hogen said. "So it is a range of areas we do try to reach to try to maximize the impact we have toward the community.”
The memorial rides runs from 6:30 a.m. until noon on Oct. 23. The cost to ride is only $19 and donations are welcomed. There’s also a free kids bike safety course.
While the Rob Dollar Foundation organizes the annual ride, the City of Phoenix is also cracking down on street safety. The city averages more than 30,000 crashes on its streets every year. In 2021, more than 230 people died in accidents and the city wants that number to drop to zero deaths by 2050," according to the city.
Phoenix’s new road safety action plan was approved last month. Since then, the city has submitted a request for an additional 30 million dollars in federal funding from the Safe Streets for All fund. If approved, the money will help the city do more, including looking at 14 intersections they’ll be improving and 2.5 miles of roadway they’ll make safer.
The city said so far their rate of roadways deaths through mid-year this year is moving at a rate that’ll surpass last year’s more than 230 people who were killed.
Phoenix has also developed a High Injury Network, mapping the areas where high numbers of people have been killed and severely injured in motor vehicle crashes. They’re using it as a tool for these road safety initiatives.
The city council has already approved 10 million dollars in funding to make streets safer locally, Kini Knudson, Director of Street Transportation for City of Phoenix said.
“Community engagement was part of our development of the road safety action plan, and it will be part of the implementation as well," Knudson said. "So we’re working on forming our vision zero community advisory committee, and we hope to have that formed in the next few months.”
Knudson said the intent of the Vision Zero Safety Plan is to reduce roadway fatalities by 25 percent by 2027, reduce by 65 percent by 2035 and get to zero fatalities on roadway by 2050.
Right now, the city is working on forming the vision zero community advisory committee. It’s a diverse, 11 member group from different areas including education, public safety, bicycle safety and the disability community. They're looking to start meeting early next year.
Knudson said they anticipate hearing about approval on the $30 million in federal funding for safer streets, by February 2023.
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