When I returned home from the National Bike Summit, I vowed to commit my firm's time and resources to teaching cyclists the rules. It is my opinion that there are 2 types of cyclist:
(1) those who know the rules and CHOOSE not to follow them -and for those cyclists, we rely on law enforcement to correct that behavior; and
(2) those newer riders who truly don't know -and want to learn the rules.
For the latter group, we began to tackle the "I don't know" problem by offering Biking 101 classes at local bike shops and businesses in April.
Full Cycle, Boulder
I'm proud to say that after last night's huge turnout at Full Cycle in Boulder, we've now taught over 130 cyclists. In just a 3 months! Kudos to the following businesses, who hosted us for these classes and found them worthwhile and a great way to connect with their customers and/or employees:
Trek Store of Kansas City
Full Cycle, Boulder
Treads, Lakewood
Big Ring Cycles, Golden
Peak Cycles, Golden
Oz Architecture, Denver
In addition, our office has hosted two TS101 (traffic skills 101) classes for citizens who wanted to learn bike basics including the laws and skills, as well as the riding etiquette on the roads in a short group ride format. These were full classes and through them we trained another 25 cyclists. This weekend our office is hosting the League for Instructor Certification Training. By Sunday assuming we all pass, most of the Hottman Law Office staff will be certified and so will 6-8 more local residents! This means more people certified and empowered to teach to more and more cyclists! WIN WIN!
Finally -a key component of the education goal is to work with enforcement and be sure we are all on the same page. I am proud to say that our office is helping law enforcement by providing training to local officers on bike laws. We use our own case examples to show how the accident occurred, what citation was issued and how the ensuing traffic case/trial played out. We had over 20 officers attend our Badges on Wheels event in April, and since then we've been invited into two departments to provide bike law ed during their officer briefings. All told, by the end of July we will have helped teach this information to over 100 law enforcement officers in Colorado. This is incredibly exciting -and it shows a desire on the part of these officers and departments to learn the laws to apply them appropriately.
Briefing officers at their 6:30am day shift briefing
Bottom line, we are making cycling safer and more accessible by teaching people the rules and HOW to follow them, one cyclist at a time. It's powerful stuff and I'm so excited with the momentum we've seen already!!! Look for more events at our office...coming soon!