BTA members from Bend, Corvallis and Eugene joined Portland-area members on Saturday to discuss how individual cyclists, law enforcement agencies, and BTA advocates can make the roads safer for bicycling.
BTA Advocate Michelle Poyourow gave a brief presentation about bicycle safety to inform the group discussion, covering known crash causes in Portland, Oregon, the US and the world.
Source: Portland Bureau of Transportation Final Bicycle Count Report, 2008
Attendees then broke into four smaller groups for focused discussion on three key issues:
1. Would you feel safer if there were more bicyclists, even if some were less skilled and orderly; or if there were fewer cyclists, but they were more skilled?
2. How can police bureaus help us make roads safer for bicycling?
3. What threats to bicyclist safety should the BTA emphasize in our advocacy and legislative work?
BTA Board members helped facilitate the smaller group discussions.
Facilitators reviewed some of the themes that had emerged during the conversations.
- There was a consensus among members in attendance that more cyclists is better than fewer. More cyclists would lead to increased visibility, legitimacy and encouragement for other potential cyclists who aren’t riding yet. New, inexperienced cyclists will eventually become skilled with more time on the road, and influence others to act predictably.
- Participants noted that cyclists are often featured in local media, and agreed that exposure is a good thing if it increases visibility and awareness.
- Encouragement programs like the Bike Commute Challenge are effective for growing the numbers of bike commuters, and may be more effective in Portland suburbs and other Oregon cities than in Portland proper.
- There was also support and enthusiasm for doing more to educate adult and youth cyclists, particularly through school programs. A few suggested bicycle education programs like Safe Routes to School mandatory across Oregon.
- There was support for police including education as much as possible in their enforcement strategies, but also a recognition that we can’t just dump bicyclist education onto their plate. Members felt strongly about more and better driver education, and suggested “educational” missions instead of stings. (First time offenders in Portland are often eligible to take the Share the Road Safety Class and have their fine waived.)
- More police on bikes!
- Members want to know more about the BTA’s day-to-day advocacy work. More communication and knowledge would help the BTA create an “advocacy toolbox” to empower individuals who want to get involved.
- The BTA should continue to advocate for more innovative infrastructure like green bike boxes and cycletracks.
- It’s important to talk about the big picture – how does bicycling fit into the whole transportation ecosystem? – and the details, such as improving a particular intersection for bike and pedestrian safety.
There was more than this, but we are still compiling and editing it. A brief report will go out to BTA members soon.
Thank you to everyone who showed up and engaged in the discussion. We really appreciate your input, and we hope you’ll be able to attend the next forum on October 3rd (details coming soon).
Thank you to souk for providing the event space and to Grand Central Bakery for the cookies and coffee.
I think the biggest thing we could do to make things safer for cyclists (and everyone!) would be to work with the DMV and require drivers to be retested every few years in order to keep their license. Otherwise people forget things and laws change.
Wheelchair activist, 1st Unitarian Church. Often don’t feel safe, nor do some of my friends, including one of our ministers, who cycles slowly across Hawthorne Bridge;
surrounded by macho cyclists who cause her much stress. PSU cyclist friend has been hit four times by other cyclists! Have you addressed this issue? Definitely want to attend next BTA forum.
P.S. To clarify, some cyclists threaten pedestrians/wheelchair users safety and well-being. Plus other cyclists.
Please hold another one after the next scheduled one, I had a conflict for the first one in August and another one for this next scheduled one. I also think there is a bigger picture that BTA can start advocating for and it really hasn’t shown up yet in BTA materials – Peak Oil is here and yet except for the Peak Oil task force report there is little talk about the impact on cycling that this impact on our society this impact is going to have. We already saw how riding jumped (and mass transit use) with the little jumpt in the price of gas, what is going to happen when gas gets even more expensive and harder to get – the time is coming…. Will the City of Portland be ready?
Is there any demographic information regarding crashs/confrontations between bikes and vehicles (time of day, location) available. Do incidents occur in specific neighborhoods or areas of the city, and if so, should resources to educate and monitor by law enforcement be targeted to those areas.