Bicycle Safety Program Planned for Falmouth

FALMOUTH – Falmouth selectmen met last month with representatives from MassRides regarding plans to expand summer bicycle safety initiatives across town.

The effort, which is a partnership between Falmouth, the Commonwealth’s Transportation Department, and the Cape Cod Commission, follows an accident that injured three pedestrians earlier this summer.

Plans call for initiating education and outreach programs on bicycle safety targeted toward J-1 visa holders to inform the town’s seasonal residents on rules of the road and on the area’s most dangerous intersections.

Over the past several months town officials have sought input on bike safety conditions, particularly in regard to foreign workers, from the town’s police department, bikeways committee and chamber of commerce.

MassRides offers similar programs in conjunction with local employers on cape, but typically has not worked with individual municipalities.

“I started having meetings with resorts and the issue of bike safety with regard to J-1 students consistently came up through all these meetings. so luckily I was given permission to start planning for bike safety events with resorts,” Kyle Bonus, a junior worksite outreach coordinator with Mass DOT, told selectmen, “I thought it was a huge success, I’ve heard great feedback. We worked with the town police, we brought in MassBike, the statewide biking organization to do trainings. They focused on 10 important bike safety tips to let students know that the cape and the US are completely different when it comes to bicycle safety.”

Selectmen expressed support for the proposal suggesting that this has been exactly the sort of effort that the community has been looking for, and Board Chairman Susan Moran called MassRides’ plan “perfect.”

Bonus told the board that she thinks the program will do well in Falmouth, despite the variety of businesses that would need to be involved, “I think with the support of the town, I know Falmouth is a great community I think it might be more realistic to do a more open event with all the employers.”

MassRide plans to begin their bicycle safety program in Falmouth ahead of next summer.

By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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