The first time Dorothy Antosca was hit by a bike she was seated with her dog, enjoying a coffee outside Peet's Coffee & Tea, when a bicyclist riding down the sidewalk "careened" into her and her pet. Her dog was injured and coffee spilled everywhere.
"It was really, truly obnoxious," she said, adding that the rider wasn't wearing a helmet and was going against traffic, in addition to being on the sidwalk. She was hit a second time by a bicyclist riding down the sidewalk as well.
Park yourself by a busy Petaluma intersection and it won't take long to see similar bike or pedestrian-related hazards: a bicyclist cruising down the wrong lane of traffic, a couple pedestrians furtively scooting through traffic outside of a crosswalk, or a car obliviously cutting off a walker at a stoplight.
These were some of the infractions for which the police department's traffic unit handed out tickets last Friday, when it dedicated a day to enforcing pedestrian and bicycle safety laws. During the day-long, grant-funded crackdown, officers made 115 stops, gave 83 warnings and issued 32 citations.
Some community members complained about the effort, saying police time could be better spent catching dangerous criminals. But for Antosca and others, the enforcement seemed well worth it.
A bicyclist commented that he'd nearly been hit twice by cars while following all the rules.
Car driver Rick Mahoney, meanwhile, said he tried to be watchful in order to avoid run-ins with bikes and pedestrians. He described one scene he witnessed where a bicyclist ran a stop sign while talking on his cell phone.
Statistics from the California Office of Traffic Safety back up these anecdotes.
Petaluma had the eighth worst ranking for bicycle collisions out of 104 similar-sized cities in the most recent year reported, 2009. For bicyclists under 15 years of age, it had the second worst ranking relative to the amount of miles driven in the city.
The city scored a bit better, though still relatively low, in pedestrian collision statistics. It ranked 30 out of 104 cities, with 1 being the worst.
Petaluma received a grant in November from OTS, in part to address these bicycle and pedestrian safety issues.
Chris Cochran, a spokesman for OTS, said many factors can lead cities to have a high number of bicycle and pedestrian collisions, ranging from dangerous intersections that need to be addressed to some communities simply having a high number of pedestrians.
In bike-and walking-loving Petaluma, it seems likely that the sheer number of bicyclists and pedestrians has contributed to the amount of collisions. The grant from OTS will fund both enforcement and education to address these issues.
"We try to provide funding for extra efforts in these particularly troublesome areas," Cochran said.
Petaluma's rankings were a large part of what motivated the police to apply for the grant, said Sgt. Ken Savano, who heads the traffic unit for the police department.
The enforcement day was just one part of a larger effort to reduce bicycle and pedestrian collisions, he said.
Also through the grant, the police hired a new, full-time motorcycle officer who will be assigned specifically to pedestrian and bicycle safety.
The officer will spend time in elementary and junior high schools, educating kids who walk or ride to school about safety, said Savano.
The police have also commissioned a free pedestrian safety assessment through UC Berkeley which will evaluate crossings, signs and signals, and make recommendations for improvements. No date has been set for the study.
"It's all part of the big picture effort to reduce crashes across the board, not just in any one area," said Savano.
Responding to those who say the police department should be focusing more on violent crime and less on bike and pedestrian safety, he pointed out that about 70 percent of people killed in Petaluma in the last 25 years have been victims of a traffic collision, while about 30 percent have been killed as the result of a criminal attack.
"People say, &‘shouldn't they be arresting criminals?'" said Savano. "Yes, that too, but we can't ignore the number of victims killed on the roadways."
While statistically high compared to other cities, bicycle and pedestrian collisions have been on the decline in Petaluma in recent years. Here are some statistics from the police department's recent traffic safety report, which compares data from the last 25 years:
Petaluma's bicycle collisions spiked to an all-time high of 67 in 1996 and have been essentially on the decline since then.
In 2009, 36 collisions occurred, in 2010 the number dropped to 25, and in 2011 the number fell to 22.
Between 2009 and 2011, bicyclists were determined to be at fault 75 percent of the time.
In contrast, in pedestrian collisions, cars were found to be at fault 85 percent of the time.
Pedestrian accidents have also been declining. A high of 38 collisions occurred in 2001. In 2011, there were just 18.
(Contact Jamie Hansen at jamie.hansen@argus courier.com)
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