Where Are We Going?

There are five key goals to making the world safer for bicyclists (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Federal Highway Administration, 2001):

1. Motorists will share the road with cyclists.
2. Bicyclists will ride safely.
3. Bicyclists will wear helmets.
4. The legal system will support safe bicycling. Law enforcement must enforce bicycle safety traffic laws aimed at motorists and bicyclists. The court system needs to impose meaningful penalties for motorist violations.
5. Roads and paths will safely accommodate bicyclists. (There are hundreds of miles of roadway in Utah that need to be improved to better serve the everyday bicyclist.)

In 2005, Utah was awarded a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) grant as part of the National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety. The grant involves the development and testing of an initiative called the Bicycle Safety Enforcement Action. In an effort to teach bicyclists and motorists to share the road, law enforcement agencies in northern Utah patrolled streets looking for riders and motorists who violated Utah laws. Officers cited motorists who put cyclists at risk by crowding them off the road, and cyclists who endangered their own safety when they rode against traffic or failed to use hand signals to let drivers know where they're going.

For more information on how you can learn to "Share the Road," click here.