City Police in Santa Barbara will be strictly enforcing bicycle laws in the downtown area Tuesday and Wednesday.
Peter Brown the City's Mobility Coordinator says this targeted enforcement comes as a response to the number of bicycle collisions and is part of a larger city initiative to promote public safety.
Brown says the city's record for bicycle collisions is poor and that a lot of unsafe traffic situations happen in intersections, if cyclist don't obey traffic signals. Although he says, cyclists, cars and pedestrians alike fail to obey traffic laws. Police will be looking at everyone. They will be increasing staffing Tuesday and Wednesday and Brown says it will be effective.
"Word gets around that the City of Santa Barbara will write you a ticket if you don't obey the law. So the best thing we can do is get out on the streets and let everyone know that their behavior, if it's illegal and if it's dangerous, it's going to be written up," said Brown. "This won’t be the last time we pool City resources to do targeted enforcement efforts. So along with future similar efforts, the Police Department will continue to cite pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers for vehicle code violations all year long."
Santa Barbara's Bike Coalition supports this initiative to inform the public about bike safety in order to enhance cycling as a mode of transportation.
Brown says the organization has spent a lot of time educating the public about bike safety and advocating for bicycle infrastructure. In addition to targeted enforcement, the City of Santa Barbara has education and infrastructure efforts as a part their bicycle master plan.
