TUCSON, Ariz. — The Tucson/Pima Eastern Region received its second consecutive gold rating as a bicycle-friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists.

The award is a prestigious designation, as the Tucson/Pima Eastern Region is the only gold region in the country, but it fell short of the platinum rating the region was applying for.

“We were a little disappointed, but I think the reason they didn’t give it to us was because we hadn’t been gold for long enough,” said Richard Corbett, who was the chair on the Platinum Challenge Task Force. “They didn’t want to give us platinum two years after they had given us gold.”

In 2006, the region became the first region in the country to earn a gold rating, which is the second-highest rating next to platinum.

“We’re really happy about being reaffirmed gold though, we got a better rating this time than last time,” said Corbett, who noted the league had less criticism about the region than in 2006.

Corbett has already received an informal critique from the league’s executive director Andy Clarke and he expects to receive the formal critique of the region by the end of May.

“I’m going to call a Platinum Task Force meeting after the critique and see what the task force wants to do,” Corbett said. “We need to develop specific goals based on the critique and other assessments.”

The region will have the chance to apply for the platinum status again in 2012.

There are still some within the Tucson community who feel the region is further away from the platinum rating than Corbett believes.

“I think that by and large the city is really on board with bicycling,” said Erik Ryberg, an attorney who estimated that half of his practice is related to bicycling incidents. “There's only one thing stopping us from deserving the platinum status and that’s the treatment by local law enforcement toward bicyclists.

“If you look at how the Tucson Police Department and, to a lesser extent the Pima County Sheriff Department, tends to handle bicycle accidents and assaults on bicyclists by motorists, you quickly come to the conclusion that not only does Tucson not deserve the platinum status it may not even deserve gold."

Corbett noted the region’s problems with the bicycle safety enforcement.

“We’re pretty good on enforcement, but we’re not perfect, and I think we have some areas we can work on with the enforcement people,” Corbett said. “We continue to have information brought to the bicyclists' committee about the police not knowing the proper laws.”

“Not perfect” is a dramatic understatement, according to Ryberg, who has represented several bicyclists who have been involved in accidents or attacks.

“The worst case I had was a client who was hit with a baseball bat by a passenger in a vehicle,” Ryberg said. “He was able to obtain the plate of the vehicle, but police never chose to pursue the suspect.

“I’ve had clients shot at with paintball guns and deliberately run down in the streets by cars. I’ve also got cases of bicyclists who were involved in hit-and-runs, where we know the identity of the driver but the police will not follow it up."

His blog, TucsonBikeLawyer.com, describes several instances of the police offering little to no help after his clients had been victims in bicycle-related accidents.

Ryberg believes the enforcement problems can be fixed if the chief of police issues a direct message to his staff declaring that bicyclists need to be treated with the same respect as motorists.

“It should no longer be assumed that the bicyclist is always at fault,” said Ryberg, adding that police need to start taking every correct procedure to determine who was at fault and deal out the proper repercussions to those in the wrong.

Ryberg believes Tucson does a great job maintaining bike routes and encouraging bike riding but needs to make drastic changes in its enforcement.

“I don’t think even Tucson should be trying for the platinum status,” Ryberg said. “I think we should be trying to make a Tucson a safer place for bicyclists, then once we achieve that we can apply for a platinum status.”

To read about the region's application process for the platinum award click here.

To read about Tucson's bike swap click here.

To read about the Tuesday night bike ride click here.

For more information about Tucson's growing bike scene, read Melissa Krueger and Catherine O'Connor's article.