Bicycle safety club offers suggestions for 'share the road' signs, raising awareness

A Cape Girardeau bicycle safety club met Wednesday in city hall to discuss the design and implementation of bicycle signs that say "share the road" and the release of bicycle safety information.

The club is expecting to begin the installation of signs by the beginning of October, said Cape Girardeau assistant city manager Heather Brooks.

The signs' design conforms to similar signs in other cities, Dan Muser, director of the parks and recreation department said.

One idea is to leave the signs in the standard design other cities have used. In this design, the top plate would be in a diamond shape and have a picture of a biker. Underneath that plate would be a second rectangular plate that reads "share the road." Both would be yellow.

The other idea would be to incorporate a route name on a third rectangular plate underneath the "share the road" plate. Neither idea was decided upon.

Some ideas were mentioned, including giving all the bike lanes in Cape Girardeau one of four route names. For instance, "the Broadway Route" or "the Lexington Route."

The club also discussed how to provide bicycle safety awareness to the city.

Mark Langenfeld, who attends the meetings to provide a bicyclist's perspective, said it was important to address the issue of bicycle awareness because many in the community don't think bicyclists belong on the road.

The club thought it was important to set up a Web site that could inform the public about basic traffic laws a bicyclist should follow.

Brooks said Channel 5, the public-access channel, could also be used as a way to inform the public.

She said the public could be best informed about bicyclist safety if this information was released at the same time the signs were posted.