As I mentioned earlier on this blog, the Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) is starting a campaign, funded by a grant received through SRTC, to promote educate the public on increasing safety through sharing the road among bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians. The campaign is called Spokane Moves Safely and SRHD held their first stakeholder meeting last night to gather input on the most effective way to conduct this campaign.
The people attending this meeting included an insurance agent, an attorney who bicycle commutes, a representative from Goood Roads Spokane, an employee from the City of Spokane, several members of the Bicycle Advisory Board, an interested citizen who is new to Spokane, two women who teach bicycle commuting classes, and several more.
Some of the questions asked of the attendees included:
– What is the cause (in your opinion) of collissions between pedestrians/bicyclists and vehicles?
– What kind of education campaigns have been done locally and nationally in the past and what about them have appealed or not appealed to you?
– Who should this latest campaign target?
– What educational message could prevent collisions?
– What kind of enforcement could add impact to the educational message or help prevent collisions?
– What is the best/most effective way to reach members of the public with this message?
You’ll be hearing more about this campaign in the coming months, but if you have any ideas/messages to share now, go ahead and post them and I’ll pass them on to the folks at the Health District.
Wear knee pads, elbow pads, and shoulder pads while ice skating to work and you will be less likely to remain in critical condition very long after a collision with a tricycle commuter.
I think roadway signs are an excellent way to reach lots of people.
Another good one we heard at the BAB is through our school children. They have bicycle safety classes and it was suggested to send home fliers with the kids for their parents. (Although this suggestion was for infrastructure, which is a little different as the parents might ask their children if they know what that "thing" is on the road.)
And speaking of kids … the thought of kids being killed by cars is always pretty powerful. Something about "imagine your child out on their bike or walking to school, in the crosswalk, and suddenly some driver who was not paying attention plows right into them…."
We did discuss the posibility of using children to convey the safety message to their parents. We didn't get into particulars though so I like your ideas. Right now the Health District is looking at statistics in an attempt to determine WHY all these bike/ped/vehicle collisions are taking place. For instance, they're analyzing what time of day collisions happened, their locations, if alcohol was involved, what the bicyclist/pedestrian was wearing, etc.