UF Police Department officials are concerned about students’ ignorance of bike safety laws in a county that ranks as the second most dangerous in Florida.
These rankings, which appeared in an article from the Bradenton Herald, may be a result of the fact that Florida is such a bike-friendly state, said UPD Lt. Robert Wagner.
“More people on bikes statistically means more accidents,” he said.
Most bicycle accidents that UPD encounters involve a car, but these are just reported incidents. Wagner said that many minor incidents go unreported on campus.
The main cause for such a high number of accidents on UF’s campus is students’ lack of concern for safety laws, Wagner said.
By law, cyclists are considered vehicles while on the road and therefore must follow all car laws.
Dan Harcha, a junior mechanical engineering major at UF, works at the Student Government Free Bike Repair and said that some circumstances require bikers to consider themselves as cars more than others.
“There are some situations when you have to make yourself big, basically make yourself a car,” he said.
An example of such a situation would be when a biker intends to make a left turn. In those instances, a cyclist should enter into the left vehicle lane and use the appropriate hand signals.
Wagner said that in addition to forgetting to use these signals, many cyclists fail to stop at red lights.
Another concern that has raised safety issues involves headsets. Florida law says people can’t operate a vehicle — including a bicycle — while wearing a headset, headphone or any other listening device besides a hearing aid, according to Florida Bicycle Laws.
Bike riders also commonly disregard the ordinance that requires them to ride with lights at night. Wagner said this requirement is not only to help riders see while riding, but also to make cyclists more visible to other vehicles.
Harcha understands how important it is for bikers to practice “defensive riding.” Crowded bike lanes raise a need for bikers to be aware of other riders.
Harcha said bikers also have to be aware of cars.
“You gotta watch out for cars because cars won’t watch out for you,” he said.
Harcha experienced this firsthand when he was in a bike accident during the 2009 spring semester. A driver didn’t see him as he was crossing Gale Lemerand Drive and hit his front tire, sending him flying through the air.
Harcha, who woke up in the hospital with a fractured left temporal bone and wrist, said he was not wearing a helmet. After the accident, he said he became much more serious about bicycle safety, specifically helmet use.
He now considers wearing a helmet “the most important thing you can do” while riding a bike.
Wagner said a high percentage of bike accident injuries are head injuries.
Harcha learned this the hard way.
“If you fall over, your head is the farthest thing from the ground,” he said.
Sara Drumm, a sophomore journalism major at UF, said she sees bicycle accidents on campus all the time. After deciding she didn’t feel safe riding on campus last year, she left her bike on campus hoping that it would be picked up by UPD at the end of the year.
“Watching the bikers on campus makes me feel like I would probably crash into someone and die,” she said.
Wagner said UPD is focusing less on ticketing students who are breaking rules and more on preventing the rules from being broken in the first place.
UPD gives presentations at Freshman Preview Orientation weekends as well as at the meetings of different campus organizations. These presentations highlight the importance of bicycle safety to student cyclists and remind them of the laws.
The presentations are also meant to inform students of the potential dangers involved with riding bicycles.
There’s a gray area, however. Bikers are allowed in some areas that cars are not, and many of these areas are on campus.
Adam Butler, a junior at UF, said that a lot of bike safety should be second nature for riders.
“You need to use common sense and not run over people,” he said.
