AASHTO Journal - TxDOT Helps Put on Free Bike Safety Event

The Texas Department of Transportation’s El Paso District recently put together a free bicycle safety event in partnership with the Alpine Police Department – turning an empty college campus parking lot into a bike obstacle course at Sul Ross State University.

[Above photo by TxDOT]

TxDOT staffers showed up before sunrise to unload and work in teams to transform the parking lot. The marked route included various tasks, interactive lessons, road signs, and a working railroad crossing.

Before riding through the course – with Alpine police officers leading the way – participants took time for helmet and bike checks. Local riding experts volunteered their time and expertise to make minor repairs and adjustments for bikes belonging to young riders and their parents.

“It was a one-stop shop for safety,” said Adriana Rodriguez, TxDOT’s bike coordinator, in a statement. “As a cyclist myself, I know how important it is to have your bike in the best working condition each ride. We were fortunate to have experts on board.”

“Sharing the rules of the road and reminding both cyclists and drivers to watch for one another is critical in rural and urban parts of our district,” noted TxDOT El Paso District Engineer Tomas Trevino. “Creating awareness for cyclists and residents can make a difference.”

The agency said that bicycle safety awareness is critically needed statewide as fatal crashes involving bicyclists increased 28 percent from 2018 through 2022. TxDOT also noted that, in 2022, there were 2,349 traffic crashes involving bicyclists in Texas, resulting in 92 deaths and 333 serious injuries – with driver inattention, failure to yield the right-of-way, and speeding the top contributing factors in those crashes.

Alpine Police Chief Darrell Losoya, an avid cyclist himself, tested the children participating in the event on stopping and hand signals.

“It is important to have bicycle rodeos like this, so the community understands what the rules and responsibilities are for both motorists and cyclists when they’re out on the road,” said Losoya. “Many don’t understand.”

In May, TxDOT began developing a Statewide Active Transportation Plan or SATP to gather recommendations for improving bicycling, walking, and rolling conditions across the Lone Star state. The agency noted in a statement that its SATP focuses on community needs to identify mobility priority areas while making and improving connections between trails, paths, and transit services in order to offer safe and efficient multimodal options for personal travel.

Other state departments of transportation are involved in similar active transportation planning effort as well.

For example, the Kansas Department of Transportation unveiled a revised active transportation plan in May 2023 to boost walking, bicycling, safe wheelchair use, skateboarding, and non-motorized vehicle mobility options across the state.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation also began working on its first-ever active transportation plan in 2023 – a policy toolkit the agency said can be used internally and by Oklahoma counties and towns as engineers and designers look to develop more people-friendly infrastructure.

The plan will address walking, biking, “wheelchairs and mobility scooters, pedal and electric scooters, electric bikes, skateboards, and other similar wheeled vehicles,” according to a website developed by the agency that details the plan’s contents.

Meanwhile, the Washington State Department of Transportation unveiled a formal Active Transportation Plan in December 2021 – a plan that subsequently won the 2022 America’s Transportation Awards contest’s “People’s Choice Award.”