Richard DeSarra
A Brief Summary of Two Bicycle Advocacy Projects Being Developed for 2017
League of American Bicyclists (LAB) League Certified Instructors (LCI)
In 2016 New York Bicycling Coalition (NYBC) received a grant from NYS Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee to fund a LAB – LCI program in NYS. The grant covered hiring an Education Director and part-time assistant to design, plan, implement and manage the program for three years.
Rochester Bicycling Club (RBC) approved a grant in 2015 to train eight LCI and establish local bicycle safety classes to be taught by the LCS. The grant was never activated because we were unable to find an organization capable of developing the program.
NYBC decided to team up with RBC to develop the LCI program in Rochester, train up to 15 LCI and offer bicycle safety education classes taught by the LCI in Monroe County. NYBC will manage the program.
The first meeting with the NYBC Education Director and RBC members Richard DeSarra, Andy Stewart and Scott Wager was held in October 2016 We are planning to train the LCI here in Rochester May/June 2017 and begin to offer bicycle safety classes July/August 2017. More details are forthcoming as the program is developed
Traffic Safety Public Education Campaign
As the demand for a more walkable, bike-able Rochester continues to grow, dangerous behaviors pose a barrier to the full realization of the community’s potential for health, safety, economic opportunity, and connectivity. To address this, challenge the Traffic Safety Public Education Campaign will create a stakeholder-informed education campaign to increase public understanding of safe traffic behaviors and proper utilization of complete streets infrastructure.
Complete Streets are streets for everyone. They are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities.
The Intended Impact of this initiative is to change Rochester’s traffic culture in order to encourage a more walkable, bike-able community, and reduce the number of pedestrians and bicyclists injured or killed in traffic collisions
The overall goal of the Traffic Safety Public Education Campaign will be to improve traffic culture as it relates to all modes of transportation, with the intended resulting impacts being, a reduction in rates of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities; and improved public health through an increase in the use of active transportation.
Rochester Bicycle Club joins with Rochester Cycling Alliance, City of Rochester, Finger Lakes Health System Agency, Rochester Police Department, Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, Rochester Community Bikes, Conkey Cruisers and Causeway Community Partners (previously known as the Ad Council) to develop and implement the Campaign utilizing multi-media to get the message to all users of our roads.
Richard DeSarra
RBC, RCA and NY Board Member – Road and Trail Advocacy