Local police departments teamed up this summer to offer bicyclists in Champaign and Urbana an alternative to paying the full fine for bicycle safety offenses. Residents in both cities will soon be able take online bicycle safety quizzes to reduce their bicycle violation fines. 

In the past few years, the Champaign and Urbana communities have seen an increase in the number of people choosing to ride bikes as a mode of transportation, consequently increasing the number of complaints about bicyclists. Skip Frost, deputy chief of the University of Illinois Police Department, said the local police departments have been focusing on the bicyclists’ unsafe behaviors as a matter of public safety.

“There are some people out there whose behavior really puts themselves and others at great personal risk,” he said. “It’s a personal safety issue, a public safety issue.”

When it comes to traffic safety, protecting the community is a matter of three ‘E’s’: engineering, education and enforcement. 

The University addressed the engineering aspect by improving infrastructure such as bike lanes. As for enforcement, the local police departments began to put a heavier focus on bicyclists violating the law in the fall 2012 semester. The following spring, they began to address the educational component.

In the spring 2013 semester, the cities of Urbana and Champaign chose different routes to offer an educational opportunity to bicyclists. 

In Urbana, offending bicyclists were offered the option to attend a bicycle safety course and reduce their $100 fines for breaking the law down to $30. The Champaign Police Department began planning an online option: a bike safety quiz produced by the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

“We thought this online version would be much more acceptable — especially with the students, who are used to doing stuff online,” said Lt. Jim Clark, of the Champaign Police Department.

While the Urbana Police Department offered two bike safety courses in the spring, Champaign Police prepared to roll out the online safety quiz option for its city. This summer, the three local police departments teamed up to create a plan that is uniform across the two cities.

Lt. Bob Fitzgerald, of the Urbana Police Department, said the bike safety classes were successful and positively received for the most part, but that Urbana will be changing to offer the online safety quiz instead. 

“It’s easier for the person to do,” he said. “When you do a class, you can only set it up for one time and certain hours. This makes it easier for the person.”

In-person bicycle safety courses will still be offered for those interested in learning about bike laws, but they will not be available to reduce fines.

Rebecca Bird, a planner for the city of Urbana and a certified instructor by the League of American Bicyclists, taught Urbana’s safety courses. She said her students were attentive and interested, but that some people wanted to take the course and couldn’t make it to the scheduled times.

“We didn’t have any alternative that we could offer them. This online quiz means that anyone at any time who gets a ticket would have that alternative,” she said.

While ticketed bicyclists in both Champaign and Urbana will be offered the opportunity to take the quiz, the program varies between the cities. In Urbana, similar to the bike safety class, completion of the quiz will reduce the fine from $100 to $30. In Champaign, completing the quiz wipes out the regular $185 fine for violating the city ordinance. 

The quiz is a one-time offer for offenses in all of Champaign-Urbana once the program starts.

“The intent is for people to learn about bike safety and comply with bike safety,” Clark said.

The quiz became available for people ticketed for bike offenses in Champaign on Monday, and the quiz will start to be offered in Urbana on Oct. 1. 

In both cities, officers are conducting details, similar to speed traps, and informing offenders of the new opportunity. Officers have the discretion of whether to issue warnings or tickets, but bikers can mostly expect tickets in Champaign because the quiz eliminates the fine. In Urbana, details will take place through September, in which mostly warnings will be issued.

Fitzgerald said the main purpose of the quiz is to provide people with an education about bike safety instead of continuing to write citations, noting that, unlike obtaining a driver’s license, no training is required to ride a bike. He also said these programs raise citizens’ awareness of bike safety issues.

“People understand that, if the police are out there writing tickets or stopping people for doing this, they understand that they also have to follow the rules of the road,” he said.

University students can also expect forthcoming changes to the University’s bike code, Frost said. All of these changes are a matter of convincing the community to voluntarily comply with all of the laws and regulations.

“It would be great with us if everybody voluntarily complied and we never had to write another citation,” Frost said. “That’d be perfect.”

Sari can be reached at [email protected] and @Sari_Lesk.