Ride Safe Month

September is Ride Safe Month in Sacramento, and the police department issued this release today describing their intent to enforce bicycle safety laws more diligently over the next few weeks. 

On the encouraging side, the first item on their list of safety tips is a reminder than bicycles have the same rights as other vehicles.  On the slightly less encouraging side, their targeted enforcement sounds completely focused on finding at-fault cyclists.  It might have been helpful to at least suggest that officers would also be keeping an eye out for drivers who fail to keep a safe distance between their cars and law-abiding cyclists.

Sacramento's chief is a cyclist (and says so in the release) and his department is part of a wider plan to make the city more bike-friendly.  Still, they missed a good opportunity to demonstrate that bicycle-car safety is a two-way affair.