TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson’s westside is celebrating the expansion of Tugo Bike Share with the launch of five new bike stations, bringing safer, more affordable transportation options to neighborhoods in the area.
Community members gathered for a block party in Barrio El Río Sunday to provide input on where they would like to see the next five stations located.
The City of Tucson operates Tugo Bike Share, a city-owned system where users can dock and undock bikes at stations throughout the city. Currently, there are 330 bikes and 41 stations citywide, with most located in midtown and downtown areas and only five on the westside.
"We're really trying to reach out to folks and figure out where exactly they might want them. Near transit stops, parks, neighborhood centers, grocery stores, convenience stores. Whatever works for them and their lives and their daily trips, we want to provide that infrastructure for them," said Ben Elias, project manager for the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility.
Rather than purchasing additional bikes, the city is reorganizing the existing system to bring more stations to the westside.
"What we found is we have some stations in other neighborhoods that don't get utilized so much and we're also being responsive to equity," Elias said. "So we are looking at a data-driven approach to understand where stations are maybe in low equity neighborhoods and where they could be utilized in high equity areas for the folks that need them the most."
Agustin Parra, who lives in the El Río neighborhood with his daughter Nicole, expressed enthusiasm about the inclusion.
"I think it's good, that way you can look around the neighborhood and the people joining with the bicycles. It is fun," Parra said.
FUGA (Familias Unidas Ganando Accesibilidad/Families United Gaining Accessibility), a grassroots coalition, played a significant role in the event by partnering with the city. FUGA organizes two monthly bike rides for the community, one on the westside and one on the southside.
Vanessa Gallego Lujan, FUGA program manager says the organization has been using Tugo bikes for seven years.
"It's free for Fuga and our rides to use because one, we want to build community with a bike, and second, we want to introduce them to bicycling again. So that partnership has made it free for our rides but it's also accessible, so people who qualify can use the Tugo bike for $5 for the entire year," said Gallego Lujan.
FUGA was also accepting bike donations at the block party. It partnered with LSA, Living Streets Alliance, to fix up the bikes and then give them right back to the community.
"So we're getting these bikes fixed because we're raffling about eight bikes," said Gallego Lujan.
She said 15 bikes were donated, eight of those were able to be repaired and the other ones will be recycled after taking out the parts that can be used.
The project is funded through a $200,000 grant from the Better Bike Share Partnership.
The office of Tucson Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz, Ward 1 Council Member, along with FUGO, helped secure the grant.
Santa Cruz says it's nice to see the westside community come together and be supported.
"It always brings me a lot of joy, even people outside their homes selling goods or food and snacks and just saying hi to people, greeting them. I think it's such an important time to see each others humanity here," Santa Cruz said.
According to Elias, the additional five stations should be seen throughout westside neighborhoods in about a month.
To see if bikes are available to use near you, check out Tugo's system map.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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Vanessa Gongora is KGUN 9's Westside reporter.. Vanessa fell in love with storytelling by growing up in sports. She was fascinated by how sports reporters go beyond the x's & o's to tell players' stories, and how sports bring people together, inspiring Vanessa to provide the same impact as a journalist. Share your story ideas and important issues with Vanessa by emailing vanessa.gongora@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
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