David: "Education, education, education."

David suggests: "The best way to avoid accidents as a whole is to educate."

Blog Contributor One: I couldn't agree with you more. If more pedestrians and bikers alike were educated we could avoid a number of accidents. Unfortunately, in this short of perfect world, we cannot educated everyone. However, educating people about bike lanes and such can make a significant impact in the long run. I find your suggestion very insightful and perhaps it will lead to a new campaign teaching people the basics of crossing a road–or in our case, crossing bike lanes.

Blog Contributor Two: I hear the whole "... just need to educate..." or "... if only people knew..." and so on mantra a little too often. There are lots of laws; there are professional tax law consultants, marriage law consultants, and we might as well have traffic law consultants. I don't think the issue is one of education; I've been cycling as my primary mode of transportation for over a decade in Boulder, and it's not the law that guides my travel decisions. First and foremost, it's my personal safety. After that, it's convenience–what's the fastest way to get to where I'm going. No amount of "education" is going to change that.

Blog Contributor Three: I think establishing designated bike/skate lanes around campus is the key solution to reducing the havoc for campus traffic. Campus is like a microcosm of the city, there's a lot going on and sometimes you have to get around faster or farther than comfortably walking. We need a way to bike or skate around but just as you mentioned the most dangerous areas on campus are the bike lanes along Broadway and near Folsom. No one even pays attention to the fact that there are designated lanes, they walk aimlessly about and its difficult to go through there. It's hard to imagine that such a highly evolved species would constantly be bumping into each other the way we do.

Blog Contributor Four: Education really is an important first step in making this campus a safer place for all pedestrians, cyclists, and skateboarders. Much of our campus population comes from out of state and very often from a non-cycling community. They really don't understand that a bicycle is considered to be a vehicle or that the lines painted on the pathways aren't just for decoration. They come to a campus and a city that pushes a car-free, environmentally friendly lifestyle, but are never taught how to be a responsible cyclist. I think there are several organizations on campus that could come together and provide comprehensive, mandatory education for cyclists and skateboarders.

Blog Contributor Five: Instead of education, perhaps infrastructure changes may be a way to reduce pedestrian/bicycle congestion. Boulder recently proposed Project New Euclid that plans to retrofit Broadway into a manageable space for both bikers and pedestrians. Unfortunately the project remains two years in the future, pressing the need for current solutions. As a primary bicyclist, I offer two pieces of advice, call it education if you will. My first bit calls out fast riders. Boulder County has over 500 miles of open trails, don't use campus as a single track, downhill experience. My second piece of wisdom asks pedestrians to be a bit more mindful. Stop texting, turn down the iPod, and notice the lane beneath your feet; if it has a bike on it, just move three feet to your right and problem solved. No one party needs to acquire full blame, but we all must work on the same page to find practical solutions.

Blog Contributor Six: I think that the concept of commuter education is an excellent idea. How about instead of issuing $100 tickets to cyclists and other campus commuters for blowing a stop sign, they are required to attend a short, hour-long class about which traffic laws apply and do not apply to them. Many campus commuters are students, and came from places where law enforcement was not as prevalent of an issue as at this university, and they do not realize that there are many basic traffic laws that they would never think of ignoring in a motorized vehicle, which they unfortunately disregard due to ignorance when commuting in a more sustainable manner. I agree-educate!

4 comments:

  1. Plain and simple education will not help. As a daily skateboarder I can say that I have never been in a collision. On campus it comes down to ability and courtesy. You will always see people tearing through crowds of people on a bike or whatever. You will always see someone driving aggressively and recklessly on real roads, same rules apply. It's not worth overhauling the entire system for a few people.

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  2. I disagree. Education WILL help. It won't cancel out stupidity, but it will certainly make bike/car/skater/ped relationships easier. Like it's been noted before, a lot of people don't even realize the lines on the sidewalk or street demarcating bike lanes. Raising awareness of safe behaviors like how to use hand signals, the importance of having a bike light if biking at night, how to tell what the cyclist or motorist or skate boarder in front of you is going to do, how to be a courteous biker/skater/pedestrian (ie. be aware of who might be around you, no sudden movements, keep one ear open to hear what's going on around you, etc.) will definitely help. It's not overhauling the whole system, it's expanding it and working to safely accommodate everyone. Education is better than banning skateboards and bikes on campus or handing out $100 tickets to cyclists who roll through stop signs (don't even get me started on why this is completely unjustified).

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  3. Though I dissagree with blog contributor two, the sad fact is that we are an entirley shelfish society.

    You stated most poetic, that yes there are laws but you are going to do whatever is convenient for yourself at the time. You are correct no ammount of education will ever get rid of the selfishness, no ammount of infrastructure,no law, nothing that I can see if numero uno is the only thing that ever matters to anyone will remove the selfishness.

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  4. Hey what's good?
    I'm a Journalism major at CU and I need to do a PSA for my TV Production class. I was thinking about using the DIRC theme for it. I was wondering if I could use your acronym DIRC for the PSA (don't want to copyright anything), and if you have any ideas for it or want to participate in it let me know.
    My e-mail address is David.d.ryan@colorado.edu.

    Thanks,
    -Dave

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