Resident Submission by Tim Schaefer (Sunnyside Resident)
It’s a beautiful day and you are walking along the Bow River pathway near the Peace bridge then suddenly an e-scooter rider zips past you from behind, almost hitting you over. You are biking in a designated cycle track on your way to meet friends for a backyard barbeque and a vehicle swerves across your bike lane cutting you off and forcing you to stop suddenly.
Safety is a top priority for everyone in our community, so what can be done to help prevent these kinds of e-scooter and bicycle safety incidents? How can our roads, sidewalks and pathways be safer for everyone?
There are different levers that can be pulled to help improve safety. Awareness campaigns on safety rules and enforcement of rules often come to mind. Design and path designation can also have a major impact.
Before any measures are taken, we need to know how many incidents are happening and where they are occurring. That way we can focus our efforts on the main issues and on the Hot Spot areas with a history of incidents. Unfortunately only about 30% of bicycle and e-scooter safety incidents are ever reported (according to bikemaps.org). Furthermore, the occurrences that are reported aren’t managed in a centralized system that can identify hotspot problem areas.
Thankfully, there is a solution to this safety-data shortage: bikemaps.org
Bikemaps.org is a free and anonymous crowdsourcing platform that allows people to report as well as see the locations of e-scooter and bike collisions and near misses. The platform allows you to report incidents that happened to you or that you witnessed happen to someone else. You can also report occurrences that happened up to 2 years in the past. And YES, there is an “App for that”! The bikemaps.org app is available for both iOS and Android.
Here is where we need your help: The HSCA is requesting citizens to report their e-scooter and bike safety incidents and concerns through bikemaps.org.
As the HSCA works with the City of Calgary on future improvements in our community, such as the Streetscape and Public Realm Improvement initiative, we will use the info reported in bikemaps.org to help identify safety Hot Spots and from there advocate and prioritize improvements where safety risks are highest.
Whether you’ve been involved in an incident or not, we encourage all citizens to check out bikemaps.org to see where problem areas exist. That way you can take extra care when travelling through those trouble spots. Keep in mind that it may take some time before incidents are reported so check back regularly.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help make our community safer by reporting your Safety concern on bikemaps.org.
Have questions or feedback please email hscatraffic@gmail.com.
Tim Schaefer (Sunnyside Resident)