Following the death of a friend in a bicycle crash, former bicycle racer Pat Hines founded Safe Moves in 1983. The Van Nuys, California-based nonprofit organization has educated thousands of California school children with training that includes information on the hazards of alleys, dangers of unknown dogs, securing bicycles, safe crossing at controlled intersections and other important lessons for "city kids." Safe Moves also works with police agencies, hospitals, community groups, senior citizen centers, and organizations for the physically challenged to provide customized training workshops and outreach campaigns. Los Angeles, a client city, realized a 25 percent decrease in bicycle-related deaths and a 30 percent decrease in pedestrian deaths between 1993 and 1997, and credits Safe Moves with contributing to that success. Last year, more than 100,000 students in 400 California schools participated in a Safe Moves program. For more information, contact: Pat Hines, Executive Director, Safe Moves, Phone 818-908-5341 or fax 818-908-5337.
Police use of bicycles is a growing movement in law enforcement agencies across the country. According to the International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA), bicycle patrols provide numerous benefits, including cost efficiency (as compared to patrol cars), speed and flexibility (as compared to foot patrols), a "stealth advantage" (cops on bikes can ride right up to a crime scene largely unnoticed), improved officer morale, improved community relations, and lower departmental health care costs. The recent resurgence began in Seattle, Washington, where the bikes were an immediate success on congested downtown streets. The bicycle patrols take on an added significance in that the officers can offer tips and training to other cyclists (with instant credibility), serve as role models to children, and advise on road improvements needed to improve the cycling environment. IPMBA has 6,000 members in departments across the country. For more information, contact:
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International Police Mountain Bike Association
28 East Ostend Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
Phone: 410-685-2220
Fax: 410-685-2240
Web: http://www.ipmba.org
Approximately 800 children from two inner city Albuquerque, New Mexico, schools celebrated National Walk Our Children to School Day last year by walking to school with prominent leaders such as Mayor Jim Baca, New Mexico state legislators, the county commissioner, physicians, police, firefighters and the media. The walk at Dolores Gonzales Elementary School was sponsored by the Safe Kids Coalition of Bernalillo County in the morning, and another walk, sponsored by the University of New Mexico, was held in the afternoon with students from La Mesa Elementary School in the Trumball/La Mesa neighborhood (formerly known as "the War Zone"). Both schools are in economically-depressed neighborhoods that are struggling to deal with their traffic safety problems through efforts such as traffic calming, as well as other city concerns like crime. The students were given disposable cameras to take pictures of things they felt were hazards to them along their route to school (they photographed stray dogs, threatening graffiti, large potholes, cracked sidewalks, abandoned cars, heavy traffic, etc.). A special session was held immediately afterwards at City Hall for the children to discuss what they had seen with City Council members and school officials. Walking through these areas helped the officials look at the city through the eyes of the children – and they were amazed and horrified by what they saw. For more information and ideas on this and similar programs from across the country, see the Walk Our Children to School Day report in Program Publications for Planner 19 in this Planner or the NHTSA Web site at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov. For specific information about Albuquerque’s efforts, contact:
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Joan Sandvig
University of New Mexico
Department of Emergency Medicine
ACC 4-West
Albuquerque, NM 87131-5246
Phone: 505-272-8670
E-mail: sandvig@salud.unm.edu
