With bicycling season in high gear, Minneapolis is launching a new campaign to remind motorists and bicyclists alike to share the road and ride and drive safely. Posters in four languages - English, Spanish, Somali and Hmong - will carry messages such as "Safety Starts With All of Us," "Ride Predictably" "Look for Bikes," and "More Bikes, Safer Streets." The will be put up at 27 transit shelter throughout the city, primarily in areas where bike traffic is high and crashes involving bicyclists are frequent. More than 3,000 crashes involving vehicles and bicycles have been reported in Minneapolis between 2000 and 2010, according to a report called Understanding Bicyclist-Motorist Crashes in Minneapolis. You can see the report at www.minneapolismn.gov/bicycles. The four messages to drivers and cyclists are:
- Safety starts with all of us – Data show that bicyclists and drivers are equally responsible for bicycle-vehicle crashes in Minneapolis.
- Bicyclists need to follow traffic laws and ride predictably – One in three bicycle-vehicle crashes in Minneapolis involves a bicyclist running a red light, riding against traffic, or failing to yield the right of way.
- Drivers need to slow down and look for bicyclists, especially when turning – 40 percent of bicycle-vehicle crashes in Minneapolis involve a driver not seeing or yielding to a bicyclist.
- Bicycling in Minneapolis is actually getting safer – As more people use bicycles for transportation, bicycle-vehicle crashes have not increased.
