On Bicycle Education

Many of you have been following the developments as we have regarding the SCAD student who was struck by a bus while riding her bike on Montgomery Street on Saturday. Below is the full text of a letter to the editor from our own Education Chair, Garrison Marr, which we hope will be printed very soon.

Early this week a college student was involved in a bicycling crash on Montgomery Street that resulted in serious injuries. The incident and its reporting has led to increased dialogue in the community on safe bicycling. To be sure, the most important outcome after this accident is that the student regains her health, and our thoughts are with her.

Because the dialogue on safer cycling has surfaced again, I would like to offer two quick thoughts:

Bicycle education is available to interested community members and it is concentrated where the available resources are likely to have the biggest impact. SCAD now offers bicycle education as part of its First Year Experience program, reaching new college students who may not have biked before coming to SCAD. The Savannah Bicycle Campaign offers quarterly in depth Traffic Skills workshops for the general public; the next is May 21 at the Bicycle Link bike shop. The SBC also organizes Bicycle Rodeos for children and their parents once every two months, teaching kids and their parents bike skills, and their parents bike-friendly motorist behaviors.

The chief principle of bicycling education is that bicyclists fare best when they act and are treated as operators of vehicles. The recent incident is an unfortunate example of the outcome of wrong-way bicycling which puts a bicyclist in a place in the roadway where they are unexpected.

Education is also only one tool in a toolkit for bicycle safety that also contains other “Es”. Bicycle-specific engineering (e.g. bike lanes, multi use paths), enforcement targeted at dangerous motorist and cyclist encouragement that invites Savannahians to make bicycling a healthy part of their daily lives.

It is in our community’s best interests for all groups to become safer, healthier, and more generous roadway users.

Garrison Marr
Education Chair
Savannah Bicycle Campaign