Educating the Police
Robert Johnson, the education coordinator for PedNet in Columbia, Missouri, will look you right in the eye and claim that encouraging police to enforce traffic laws for bicyclists increases ridership.
Counterintuitive? Perhaps. But Johnson has the results to prove it.
Columbia was one of four US communities to receive a $22-million grant from Federal Highway Administration’s Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program in 2006. The local grant organization, Get About Columbia, works with the grassroots PedNet to educate bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as to design and build streets, lanes and trails that are friendly to non-motorized transportation.
The results are impressive so far.
Columbia earned silver-level status as a Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists in 2009.
Education, infrastructure improvements and promotion played a role in that. So did law enforcement, Johnson said.
PedNet believes bicyclists should obey the law for safety and good PR. But many officers don’t know what the bicycle laws are and usually feel they don’t have the time to enforce them, Johnson said. “It’s just not something they are trained on.” he added.
That situation began to change when Johnson, and PedNet Executive director Ian Thomas, met Jeff Westbrook, a 22-year veteran with the Columbia Police Department who bicycles daily for exercise. A few rounds of discussions later and they implemented a training session, as a part of ongoing police training, focused on teaching officers Missouri bicycle laws and encouraging enforcement.
“It was very well received,” Westbrook said of the training that included all officers on the force. The officers were favorably impressed with Johnson and his desire to see laws enforced. The training began exploding stereotypes of bicyclists as annoying impediments to traffic, Westbrook said. Additional training is planned for 2010.
Officers have the discretion to write tickets or give warnings. “They are pretty actively pulling bicyclists over now,” Johnson said.
But the police now see themselves as partners in growing bicycling in Columbia, Westbrook said, so they also participate in encouraging programs such as Operation Light the Night. For several nights in late September of 2009, police officers stopped cyclists riding with no lights. Instead of tickets, the bicyclists received free lights from PedNet. Volunteers mounted the lights on the spot.
Johnson does not believe police involvement hampers interest in bicycling. Just the opposite.
“This makes it more normal and mainstream,” he said. “Our police department blows my mind with their professionalism. We have fostered a relationship built upon trust and mutual respect.”
www.pednet.org
www.getaboutcolumbia.com
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Newsvine
Facebook
YahooAbout the Author
Published in Momentum No. 42
In our Public Space issue, we meet Mia Birk of Portland and Fred Kent of NYC, both of whom have shaped and revitalized public space in their respective cities. We learn about Los Angeles bike culture and explore the usual sampling of arts, culture and gear.
