FEBRUARY 2016
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Injury Prevention
Program helps Alaskans bike and walk safely
In
Alaska — a place with dark nights for months at a time — making sure you can be
seen while on the road is critical to your safety. Most fatalities involving
pedestrians occur at places along the road that are not intersections, where
drivers may not be looking for pedestrians or bicyclists.[1]
Another
cause for injury is a newer concept called distracted walking. The emergence of
this concern comes with the popularity of electronic handheld devices, like
cell phones and portable music players. Distracted walking happens when you take your attention away from where
you are walking or from what you can hear while walking. In 2013, Safe Kids Worldwide published a report called Teens and Distraction: An in-Depth Look at
Teens’ Walking Behaviors.[2] The report states that 20 percent of high
school students and 13 percent of middle school students were observed crossing
the street while distracted. Students
were most often texting on a phone (39 percent) or using headphones (another 39
percent). Girls were 1.2 times more
likely than boys to be walking while distracted.[2]
Alaska’s
Bike-n-Walk Safely Program works with the state’s communities to address some
of the challenges associated with dark nights and lower visibility. The program
is part of Alaska’s
Injury Prevention program and educates Alaskans about how to be more
visible while on the road, provides materials like reflectors and helmets that
make them more visible and safe, and offers a yearly bicycle safety training summit.
In
August 2015, a Bicycle Training Summit was held in Anchorage. Participants came from St. George Island,
Kotzebue, Sitka, Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau to learn about rider safety
and visibility, bike handling techniques for rural and urban roads, bicycle
mechanics, and properly fitting a bike helmet. Plans are being made to host a Bike Safety Summit in Fairbanks in the summer
of 2016.
Each
year, Alaska’s Bike-n-Walk Safely Program gives safety event organizers and
schools over 4,000 reflectors and other items that make bikers and walkers more
visible. The program also provides other tips for people to stay “light and bright.” That means staying away from the back of
vehicles and the driver’s blind spot, not playing in snow or leaf piles on the
edge of a roadway, and not playing between parked vehicles.
The Bike-n-Walk Safely Program is creating signs for
Anchorage’s People Mover buses that will inform motorists, pedestrians, and
bicyclists about what they can do to avoid distraction. The Distracted Walking Campaign on Anchorage
buses will run for three months in 2016.
For more information on how your classroom or
community event can promote pedestrian and/or bicycle safety, please contact
Renee Rudd at (907) 754-3421 or renee.rudd@alaska.gov.
References:
- National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality
Analysis Reporting System (FARS) 2004-2012 Final File.
-
Safe
Kids Worldwide Teens and Distraction: An In-Depth Look at Teens' Walking
Behaviors.
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