In the wake of a tragic accident, Cincinnati turns it into something positive

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http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070416/NEWS01/704160383/1056/COL02

The Cincinnati Cycle Club, which is one of the oldest in the country and has been around since the 1880's, offered scholarships to some members to take the League of American Bicyclists Certified Trainer Course, which is being offered for the first time around here.

After those members are certified, Cincinnati will have the largest number of league-certified instructors in the country.

[genec]

Great. Now since so many cyclists, especially the ones that could use training the most (sidewalk riders, ninja riders, contra flow cyclists) are least likely to seek such training... how does Cincinnati Cycle Club propose to get the word out to the general public... or does one have to be a member of a cycle club to find out how to ride a bike on public streets?

[Bekologist]

i think broad based cycling advocacy would be of much greater use to a community to increase bicyclist safety than having the most certified league instructors.

lets hope something bigger is done than just adding to the cadre of trained instructors.

any steps are likely to be positive ones though. lets hope the 'instructors' get out there in the public eye, give away some of their expertise, spread populist bicycling advocacy as well.

[pj7]

and after they get the scholarship, who wants to bet that they ride their bikes on the ped paths on campus?

[Commuter8]

In my jurisdiction they passed Helmet laws several years ago. During the last two years, they have started enforcing the law with interesting results. Initially ridership dropped. Some people just stopped riding their bikes. Police started to enforce the law by stopping cyclist and usually issuing a warning. Somehow getting a $150 fine has a dramatic effect on cyclists. I have been advocating that the police been more aggressive in the application of rules of the road for both cyclists and motorists. Cycling numbers have returned to normal and now have started to grow.

A side note to this problem is a recent rash of pedestrian/car accidents causing the deaths of several young/beautiful/tragic teenagers. (The deaths were not beautiful, the teenagers were.. ummm moving on).

For some reason people get in their metal living rooms and think that nothing can touch them. Personally, I would rather be in an accident at low speed < 35 mpg car/bike bike/ground etc than be in a car accident at > 40 mph. I have several close family friends that have died in Car accidents. Brutal T-bone, blind-sided, permanent mental injury or death accidents in luxury cars. This idea that riding a bike in traffic is tremendously less safe than being in a car is sensationalism meant to sell newspapers and cars.

Back to my point. Using law enforcement or peace officers as one of the tools works. So does advocacy, public humiliation and peer pressure.

[genec]

Using law enforcement or peace officers as one of the tools works. So does advocacy, public humiliation and peer pressure.


Great, then let's see law enforcement applied to all the speeding motorists out there.

[JeniCincinnati]

I am one of the scholarship recipients and was certified yesterday. I am also a sometime poster on this forum but typically post in the road bike section. We have a lot of great ideas and understand that the "wrong way" cyclists will be the hardest market to reach. As a whole, we're trying to make Cincinnati a more cycling friendly community and with work, we can get there. Being certified by the LAB gives us the ability to go into drunk driving schools, teach little kids effective cycling, reteach the racer and club riders by leading by example, etc.

The class consisted of 5 road racers (me included), a bike shop owner/mechanic, a CCC board member, and many recreational road riders. We're just trying to reach the community one cyclist at a time.

Jeni