By Rick Price
How can we get more people to use their bicycle for
transportation in Fort Collins? Offer more classes in safe cycling skills? Build more bike paths? Hire a marketing firm to advertise the health
benefits of bicycling? Continue to offer
a free bicycle lending program to encourage tourists to ride bicycles?
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| Gimmicks are great to increase the visibility of bicycling. But they don't teach bicycle safety. The City needs a solid bicycle safety education program aimed at school children, their parents (who are also drivers of motor vehicles) and college students. The current budget development cycle presents a perfect opportunity to prioritize bicycle safety education in City bicycle policy. |
Last January I conducted a survey of interested citizens in
order to provide input to City Council on these priorities. Five hundred thirty-six people responded to
the survey. 87% of respondents felt that
the City's bike program contributes to their personal
well-being and quality of life and 84% felt that our bicycle programs and
culture constitute an economic driver, enticing businesses and residents to
move here.
When asked to rank programs,
including law enforcement, the bike library, and education programs for
children, college students and motorists, education for children came out on top,
supported by 82% of respondents. Second
was educational outreach to motorists which attracted the support of 68% of
respondents. Third was support of the
bike library (67%) with summer bike to work day close behind at 64%.
Respondents in this survey were not
asked to allocate funds in a hypothetical budget but they were asked a number
of times to prioritize programs. Bike
safety programs for school children came out consistently at the top of the
list with three quarters tagging this as “very important” and another 21%
identifying it as “somewhat important.”
Two popular programs that give
bicycling great visibility in Fort
Collins came in near the top of this list of
priorities. They are the bike library
and summer bike to work day. But answers
to additional questions made it clear that most people feel that these are
programs that the City should continue to sponsor but not pay for entirely. Only a quarter of respondents felt that the
City should continue to fund the free bike library while a majority (66%) felt
that the program should be self-supporting.
A similar sentiment was expressed with Bike to Work day. 32% encouraged the City to continue to
sponsor this while 57% felt that local businesses or bicycle advocacy groups
should assume more of a role in financing bike to work day.
Among the bicycle programs that had
less support in this survey were the Bicycle Ambassador Program (only 25% of
respondents supported it), the Bike Safety Town for school children and Winter
Bike to Work Day, both with 43% support.
In my view the Bicycle Ambassador Program and Bike Safety Town, if
properly launched and funded, could be the mainstay of an educational outreach
program in the schools while winter Bike to Work day could easily be passed to
the private sector.
As staff finalizes the 2013-2014
budget recommendation for City Council approval later this fall they should
consider the results of the above survey.
The community is asking for more bicycle safety programs and fewer costly,
headline-grabbing initiatives.
