Bicycle safety FIRST!
For hundreds of international student workers who come to the Cape Region for summer jobs, bicycling is not recreational; it’s serious business. It’s their only way to get to and from work or go shopping for life’s necessities.
Each summer, as increased traffic creates greater hazards on the roads, the International Student Outreach Program of the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches helps coordinate the efforts of many church volunteers, businesses, organizations and agencies to help promote cycling safety.
“It’s a combination of raising driver awareness of bicyclists plus making the students aware that here, it’s not like in Europe, where bikes are everywhere,” said Roger Roy, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Delaware (TMA), one of the many partners in the safety efforts.
Several groups have been reaching out to international workers for the past few years, including the Sussex Cyclists, a local riding club. “Around 2002, we had a bike safety presentation and helmet giveaway at Rehoboth Elementary School, but we found it hard to attract the students,” said Mike Tyler, Sussex Cyclists advocacy chairman. “Last year we initiated the Bicycle Safety Checkpoint program whereby we set up ‘pit stops’ along the north- and southbound sides of the highway to stop cyclists, give out helmets and lights and provide safety materials in several languages. Paralleling our efforts have been a bike safety day at Ocean Atlantic Agency and an effort by the churches in the area to promote cycling safety.” Highway checkpoints will continue at various locations through the end of July and are sponsored by many different groups and area businesses.
Communicating with the workers has become easier since the church-sponsored student outreach program initiated an organized free-meal schedule for them last year, said Anthony Aglio, bicycle and pedestrian planning coordinator for the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT). “We expanded the checkpoint program to be at the church meals, hoping to reach more students. This is the first year we’ve been truly working with the churches to provide safety information and equipment at the meals, and it’s working - we’re seeing a lot more people this way,” he said.
