A report from inside the first Share the Road Safety Class

Wednesday was the inaugural session of the new Share the Road Safety Class. This new class can be completed in lieu of paying fines for certain bicycle, pedestrian and motor vehicle infractions.

BikePortland reader Lev Tsypin, who runs Level Online Strategy, was in that first class and wrote up an account of his experiences (edited for brevity):

My saga started when I was pulled over for running a red light at SE 7th and Hawthorne and given a $240 citation.

While there was no question of my guilt, the light was clearly red (although it was late at night with no cars in sight), I still felt a certain indignity for being treated the same way as a car.

So I did what any upstanding American would, I took the matter to court and got a good friend (and one of the best lawyers in town) to take on my case. Not that there was much of a case. When the officer asked me why I ran the red light, my brilliant answer was “because I was being lazy.”

Officer Thorenson, who gave me the ticket, agreed to drop the charges if I took this new class. Aside from obviously being better than dishing out $240, I was really interested in what it would be like.

There were about 50 people there, of all stripes and sizes, and from all over town. Later in the class I learned that this mix of people is due primarily to the fact that the class is intended to bring together drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. That’s a great idea, especially given all the tension between the groups around the busy parts of town.

I think the strategy worked, as at the end there were lots of questions and people generally seemed engaged. The class consisted of a pre-test survey of what I felt were trivial multiple choice questions, a set of speakers, followed by the same test and then some Q&A.

Aside from Judge Larsen , there were representatives from the Emanuel trauma nurses, Portland Police, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, the BTA, and Portland Office of Safety. Trauma nurse Mike Morrison started things off with some statistics, graphic images, and warnings of what can happen when people are not careful on the street. I jotted a few of them down:

• about 5000 trauma patients a year
• 10% of those are bikes & pedestrians
• 30% of those are children
• head and neck injuries are most common, and most serious.

He then did some comparison slides of crash victims with and without helmets. I’m sure you can guess which fared better.

Conclusion: crashes are not accidents so follow the laws and be careful.

Next up was Officer James Sorenson who spoke about what the laws are and what he has encountered in his 20+ years as a traffic cop.

He showed several funny photo radar shots showing what people do when they drive, including apply hair spray and kiss a large dog, and some video clips taken from police cars.

Sorenson stressed that we are all a community and need to work together to have safe roads. Following that was a fairly humorous video from the Pedestrian Coalition with vignettes on how to be a good pedestrian and driver.

Michelle from the BTA then got up and went through some slides about bicycling. She covered the basics like turn signals, following traffic control devices, helmets, and controlling your speed. We were also shown a video made by the Illinois Department of Transportation about how bikes and cars can share the road.

Finally, Judge Larsen gave some closing remarks and we took the same multiple choice test again.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the class. I came into it with some curiosity but a fairly cynical attitude. I think it’s definitely a great step in improving relations between bikers and cars; just getting people together to discuss the issues, even if it is more or less against their will, is definitely a good thing.

As for me and whether or not I learned anything, I do find myself stopping and waiting at red lights now. Although I have to admit that as I was coasting home through Irvington at night after the class, I may have missed a couple stop signs.

Thanks for that report Lev.