Friday, September 25, 2009

C.A.R.S. gets $197,600 to help cyclists, drivers

From The Huntsville Times

The death of two bicyclists in Huntsville in the past year didn't spur the city to initiate a traffic safety campaign, but they do remind city officials that more awareness is needed to help make bicycle riders and motorists safer.

The city will spend almost $200,000 in the Bicycle/Pedestrian Education: Operation C.A.R.S. (Citizens Advocating Rider Safety) campaign with the aim of making streets safer for bikers and automobile drivers.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization amended its transportation plan Wednesday to add the $197,600 project to the plan. The MPO had to put it in the plan because any transportation project using federal highway money must be in the plan.


Read more here

7 comments:

Lisa said...

Yesterday afternoon about 4:45 I was taking my boys to football practice. I was turning right from Old Madison Pike onto Wynn Dr. A cyclist was also turning right here. The sidewalk he was riding on ended at the corner and he turned onto Wynn staying in the shoulder. I saw him and moved into the left lane to give him space. Silly me. The tow truck behind me moved into the space. The truck was too large for the cyclist to stay even in the shoulder. He was forced off the road into the grass.

All this occurred in an area where traffic is forced to move slower because students are crossing Wynn Dr. from a parking lot to Calhoun. Yet a police officer parked in the center of the road is required to force drivers to slow down. The same area where a cyclist was killed a year ago. Forgive me if I'm skeptical that this "campaign" will change anything.

Peter said...

Lisa,

Would you mind posting your comment on http://hsvbike.com as well? It is the BASC blog and would be good feedback for the committee to see.

Thanks,

Peter

marshmallow said...

At least it's some kind of progress.

Bello Velo said...

Thank you Lisa for taking the time to post this. The City is well aware of this as Davis was almost hit here a week ago.

Sadly our City and Mayor seem to have the same rhetoric "Cyclist run lights, stops signs and as our mayor asked tyler who posted the article"Didn't I see you riding across the railroad tracks where the caution signs were down? This of course was not the case, but my point is if the Mayor, The City and a lot of other cyclists think if you commute you are a lawbreaker.

I agree with you we need a change in attitude here and that starts with our Mayor who is being escorted with body guards in his gas guzzling SUV.

The grant is great,but we still need to see how it will be spent. I also noticed the article say's nothing about encouraging the public to commute by bike. Just more safety.


Now if what you saw happen was a another Car then I don't think we would be talking about it.

Anonymous said...

Why does this say it is unrelated to the deaths and BRAC?

skeptic said...

Is BRAC is Bicycle Recreation and Commuting vs BASC? How much did the other CARS get (Citizens against riders survival)?

Peter said...

cute