Friends of the Desert Bring Friends to Bike Share in Tucson

Tugo Bike Share and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona worked together to add public art to one of its stations, encouraging bike share use.

All photos courtesy of Grecia Ramirez (@Fotosbyg_)

Tucson, AZ, is an area of high biodiversity due to its location in the Sonoran Desert. Visit the city’s Menlo Park bike share station, and you’ll get educated on the animals located near the Santa Cruz River, which runs through the city. Tucson’s bike share system, Tugo Bike Share, recently launched its Art in Motion public art project in partnership with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona in hopes of encouraging bike share use while bringing awareness to residents about these friends of the desert.

When the Better Bike Share Partnership announced the latest mini-grant round earlier this year, Tugo Bike Share applied and was awarded a grant to collaborate with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona to install vinyl wraps on a bike share station and bikes, transforming them into vibrant works of art that reflect the culture and identity of Tucson’s diverse communities. The station and bikes were officially revealed during a community bike ride led by Families United Gaining Accessibility (FUGA), a mobility justice group that leads community bike rides in historically underserved areas of Tucson. Tugo is a partnership between the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility, the system operator Shift Transit, and the equipment provider Lyft Urban Solutions.

The artwork was selected by a panel of seven individuals in the arts and cycling communities, including four youth artists from the Menlo Park neighborhood where the project took place.

“I was really happy that we got a majority youth panel, because it brought them into the world of not only the transportation field, but also art and how those two things can come together,” says Lydia Barker, planner at the City of Tucson. “I’m glad we got to reach out to the kids who maybe haven’t had experience in these kinds of processes before, whether that’s artwork or city-led initiatives.”

The primary project idea the panelists decided on and gave to the selected artist, Monique Laraway of revolta Art, was to use two or more themes from the desert, local landmarks related to Menlo Park, abstract concepts to encourage dialogue, and/or bright, positive, and uplifting visuals.

“I chose the Santa Cruz River, which flows from Mexico to just north of Tucson in Marana, Arizona, and that’s currently a dry river at this point, but there’s a lot of local groups and organizations working to get it flowing again, which was part of the inspiration for me, highlighting that, and the creatures that use the river as a migration corridor,” says Laraway.

The bikes feature different words of inspiration, like ‘hang on’ and ‘mend’, and animal names, like whiptail lizard and gila topminnow, to ignite curiosity. The panelists decided on big, vibrant colors to increase rider safety. The art is in both Spanish and English to reflect the language of its residents. Barker hopes that the artwork creates conversations around the environment, sustainability, and mobility options. She poses the question, “How can art and alternative modes of transportation encourage people to be thinking more about their environment and what impact they’re having?” 

For the ride with FUGA, participants stopped at the Menlo Park wrap station in West Tucson, where Tugo talked about the project, Laraway, and the panelists. As a Living Lab grantee, Tugo also used this ride as an opportunity to point out potential bike share stations, which are part of their Living Lab project, to redistribute Tugo bike share stations to serve the south and west sides of Tucson more equitably. At the end of the ride, shared information on where residents can comment on the redistribution proposal.

One of the riders on the community ride was youth panelist Kayla W., 16, of West Tucson. He volunteered at El Grupo Youth Cycling’s summer bike camp, which is how he heard about the opportunity to be on the panel. El Grupo Youth Cycling is a nonprofit that empowers youth through cycling by providing youth development opportunities.

“It was the first panel I’ve ever been on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they made it really intuitive,” says Kayla. “When we were talking about the art and bikes, it just made sense, and it was so much fun, because those are subjects that I like, so we all got to work together on things that we all like.”

Kayla hopes his neighborhood feels a sense of community and homeiness through having the bikes showcase animals that live in the Sonoran Desert, where they reside as a tool to bring them all together.

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The Better Bike Share Partnership is funded by The JPB Foundation as a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), and the PeopleForBikes Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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