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For hundreds of international student workers who come to the Cape Region for summer jobs, bicycling is not recreational; it’s serious business. It’s their only way to get to and from work or go shopping for life’s necessities.
Each summer, as increased traffic creates greater hazards on the roads, the International Student Outreach Program of the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches helps coordinate the efforts of many church volunteers, businesses, organizations and agencies to help promote cycling safety.
“It’s a combination of raising driver awareness of bicyclists plus making the students aware that here, it’s not like in Europe, where bikes are everywhere,” said Roger Roy, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Delaware (TMA), one of the many partners in the safety efforts.
Several groups have been reaching out to international workers for the past few years, including the Sussex Cyclists, a local riding club. “Around 2002, we had a bike safety presentation and helmet giveaway at Rehoboth Elementary School, but we found it hard to attract the students,” said Mike Tyler, Sussex Cyclists advocacy chairman. “Last year we initiated the Bicycle Safety Checkpoint program whereby we set up ‘pit stops’ along the north- and southbound sides of the highway to stop cyclists, give out helmets and lights and provide safety materials in several languages. Paralleling our efforts have been a bike safety day at Ocean Atlantic Agency and an effort by the churches in the area to promote cycling safety.” Highway checkpoints will continue at various locations through the end of July and are sponsored by many different groups and area businesses.
Communicating with the workers has become easier since the church-sponsored student outreach program initiated an organized free-meal schedule for them last year, said Anthony Aglio, bicycle and pedestrian planning coordinator for the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT). “We expanded the checkpoint program to be at the church meals, hoping to reach more students. This is the first year we’ve been truly working with the churches to provide safety information and equipment at the meals, and it’s working - we’re seeing a lot more people this way,” he said.
On Thursday evening, June 21, while volunteers were serving dinner to students at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Rehoboth, Aglio and others were outside handing out bike safety brochures in Russian, Polish, Spanish, Romanian and English as well as maps of the area to help students find ways to avoid riding on busy Route 1. They also installed bike headlights, taillights and reflective stickers; gave away tire tool and patch kits; and provided reflective wristbands and sashes to be worn while biking and walking,
“The headlights are battery operated and can be removed from the bracket to use as a flashlight while walking,” said Mike Love of the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension. “Anything to make the kids more visible will improve their safety.”
DelDOT and other partners have been attending the dinners since Memorial Day this year, Love added. “We’re getting these kids earlier than before, before they develop bad habits, and it’s having a big impact. We tell them about alternate routes to keep them off Route 1.”
The recent completion of the Junction and Breakwater Trail between Lewes and Rehoboth will help with that, said Roy. Plans are in the works to post signs at road crossings along the trail and on Plantations Road to help riders understand where they are in relation to businesses on the highway.
Another big part of the safety effort involves giving away bikes that have been donated by area businesses or residents; also, Rehoboth Beach Police Department recycles bikes left behind by last year’s departing student workers. The bikes are collected by the Transportation Management Association and refurbished at Wheels and other area bike shops to make sure they’re in good condition before distribution. Roy noted that the Delaware River and Bay Authority provided a $5,000 grant last year to help underwrite bike repair costs. Last year, the program gave away more than 70 bikes.
Bob Smiles, bike recycling coordinator, puts this year’s current total at closer to 100 bikes including this week’s giveaways. “Initially in the program, we started with about 80 bikes and not that many students, so we gave away bikes on a first come, first served basis. We have a limited supply of bikes now, so we have to have drawings at each of the dinners we attend,” he said. “We take a few bikes, and there are 20 kids waiting for one, so we draw names out of a hat. One drawing is for the kids who get there early, and another is at the end of the dinner.”
“Bike collections are an ongoing effort,” said the Rev. Frank Deming, president of the Lewes-Rehoboth Association of Churches. “We’ve been getting donations through the New Life Thrift Shop as well as other sources. People who have bikes that they would like to donate can contact TMA, since the agency has a van to arrange pickups.”
To contact the agency, call 302-658-9001 or contact Smiles directly at 226-8263.
Contact Bernadette Hearn at bernie@capegazette.com
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