Bicycle campaign going on this month, Sinkiuse bike rodeo May 20

MOSES LAKE — Deb Miller is taking her pedals to the asphalt, and the radio waves this month.

The Moses Lake resident and bicycle advocate is heading a campaign to increase the awareness of bicycling as a healthy alternative form of transportation and as a lead in to the community's annual bike rodeo May 20 at Sinkiuse Square.

"As more people start riding their bikes, it's another change for the community," Miller said. "Bicyclists need to learn the appropriate rules for the road."

Miller is head of the subcommittee on bicycle and pedestrian safety for the Healthy Communities Trails Planning Team, and is already in gear for the monthlong campaign which seeks to educate both cyclists and motorists about the rules of the road and ensure safety on that road.

Her hope is that the campaign is the first of many. With perpetually increasing trails in the greater Moses Lake area, and the emergence of bike lanes, Miller is continuing to campaign for those facilities, and create an awareness about cyclists. The number one draw to bring cyclists onto the roads, she feels, is the addition of bike lanes and other facilities which allow cyclists to feel safe.

Miller points to the fact that both the teen on the bike and the adult in the pickup truck must follow the same rules of the road, something the two can forget when motorists and cyclists aren't used to sharing that road with one another.

"I guess part of it is to minimize any further conflicts as there's more bicycles appearing on the roads," she said of increasing that awareness.

Miller is doing radio announcements each Wednesday morning, providing basic biking rules of the road.

The campaign culminates when more than 60 volunteers form a variety of groups teach safety to future cyclists, and distribute more than 700 bicycle helmets at Sinkiuse Square next month. Organizers recently held a student-centered bike rodeo at North Elementary School, and are putting one on for the community from 9 a.m. to noon on May 20.

Moses Lake Fire Department Assistant Chief Corbin Moberg is organizing the bike rodeo, and said the presentations and bike inspections are key to helping kids learn to ride bikes, and ride bikes safely.

"It's an opportunity for them to learn about safe bike riding, an opportunity for them to ride safely, and it provides them helmets," Moberg said.

Since the fire department began organizing the rodeo in the late 1990s, thousands of bike helmets have been given away, and Moberg is convinced those and the tools taught at the rodeo have had a positive impact on the safety of kids.

The rodeo itself is broken into stations including the registering of bikes with the city, safety presentations and the inspections and minor repairs of bikes. The Saturday morning program also leads aspiring cyclists to practice the rules of the road in an environment designed specifically for kids. The program is designed for kids but helmets are available to cyclists of all ages, and to skate boarders and in-line skaters as well. Rodeo organizers handed out more than 500 helmets last year.

"It's an excellent program," Moberg said, adding the rodeo teaches kids cycling's basic rules in a safe environment designed specifically for kids.

Airing up tires, minor repairs to bikes and the presentations of safety will highlight the event. But practicing bicycle turn signals isn't the only thing the kids will learn, there's fun too.

"The funnest part of the day is the bicycle rodeo, which is a little mini course where kids will have a chance to practice," Miller said.

Moses Lake Police Officer Cal Baker will again be registering bikes at the event, and said the morning program teaches riders that a bicycle is just like any other vehicle, and teaches those riders the rules of the road they need to ride away with at the end of the day.

The more than $8,000 funding to provide the rodeo to kids is provided primarily through a grant from the Spokane-based John P. Jundt Foundation, but also through funding from Basic American Foods, the Rotary Club of Moses lake, Moses Lake Sunrise Rotary and Columbia Colstor. In addition to the city and the trails planning team, the Safe Kids Coalition, Columbia Basin Herald and Samaritan Healthcare Foundation have all partnered to bring the event to the square.

The aim, Miller said, is get kids to learn bicycle safety early. Young cyclists aged 9 to 14 are the most at risk for injury, Miller said, in the years after they are no longer under the direct supervision of their parents. By teaching kids the safety through educational campaigns and bike rodeos, organizers' hopes are to instill the proper training early, before the parental training wheels come off.

"If we teach kids early," Miller said, "hopefully those rules will carry into those future years when they're no longer under supervision of parents."