How do we get more people bicycling and make it safer to cycle?
The 5Es – engineering (infrastructure), education, enforcement, encouragement, and evaluation (to make sure it’s working & to make adjustments) – all play a key and inter-related role.
At HBL, we push for a network of bikeways to provide dedicated places for people to ride, we advocate for laws that will help keep our streets safe for all, we educate bicyclists and motorists on how to safely share our roads, we hold events to get people out feeling comfortable and confident cycling, and we support enforcement focused on making bicyclists, motorists, pedestrians, and everyone safer. All these items have a crucial role to play if we are going to make Hawaii truly bicycle friendly. So when we had the opportunity to have Peter Flucke, a bicycle safety and enforcement expert, conduct a training with HPD we jumped on it.
Enforcement Focused on Safety
Mr. Flucke (WE BIKE etc) conducted a 3-hour training – “A Law Officer’s Good Practices Guide to Bicycle Safety and Enforcement” – with HPD covering driver and bicyclists violations that contribute to bicycle injuries and fatalities and how to use focused enforcement to address these. At the core of Mr. Flucke’s training is something the idea, one we’ve been working hard to make the common understanding, that traffic crashes are preventable instead of being unpreventable “accidents”. With this starting point, (according Mr. Flucke) here are the main motorist and bicyclist violations that contribute to bicycle crashes, injuries, and fatalities:
Motorist
- Speed
- Failure to yield right of right-of-way
- Disregard signs and signals
- Turning and backing
- School zone congestion
- Alcohol/drugs
Bicyclist
- Wrong way riding
- Disregard signs and signals
- Failure to yield right-of-way
- No lights at night
Focusing enforcement on these main violations that contribute to crashes and injuries and fatalities is key to having the greatest impact in making our streets safer.
Enforcing our 3 Foot Safe Passing Law
The training also included a section on how to enforce our new 3 Foot Safe Passing law. Mr. Flucke brought with him a C3FT device – which measures precisely the distance between bike and passing vehicle and can be effectively used to enforce the Safe Passing 3 Foot law. See video demonstrating the C3FT device. As part of our Safe Passing 3 Foot law implementation campaign, HBL will be working to get this tool in the hands of HPD
Partnering for Safer Streets
The training was made possible by HBL and is part our ongoing efforts to partner with HPD to make our streets safer.
