The Ames Police Department is looking to expand upon its public safety initiative, “Bike, Walk, Drive Smart,” about a year after the campaign was implemented.

“Bike, Walk, Drive Smart,” which is a campaign to practice safety through respect, was created after the death of Emmalee Jacobs, who was an Iowa State freshman when she was fatally hit by a CyRide on the first day of finals in December 2015.

Now with a year under its belt, the Ames Police Department is looking to keep moving forward with its initiative.

“We really pride ourselves on trying to be a proactive, problem-solving police department, and I think that’s why we were looking at this safety campaign last year because we want to be proactive, we want to get the words out, we want to educate our citizens who use our streets and use our sidewalks,” Ames Police Patrol Cmdr. Jason Tuttle said.

Tuttle said the education aspect was a focus point of the group when first putting the program together. The department did this by handing out flyers in the street and distributing them across town and on campus.

The Ames Police Department also worked with the Iowa State Police Department to make sure that students were safely crossing the street when on campus, as well as being cautious of pedestrians when riding a bike or driving a car.

Several pages on the city of Ames website are dedicated to the “Bike, Walk, Drive Smart” campaign. Here, people are able to find instructional videos as well as flyers and tips for pedestrians, drivers and bike riders.

The department created three videos, one for each mode of transportation — walking, biking and driving. Community Outreach Officer Eric Snyder of the Ames Police Department hosts each video.

While they all contain different information, Snyder finishes with the same line, “No meeting, class or appointment is worth hurting yourself or someone else. Remember, to give respect, you must earn respect. If we all do our part to travel smart, we can make a difference.”

On top of laying out the law, the website includes maps showing which paths are shared use. When the law is discussed, it is sectioned off, labeling what each section applicable to walking, biking or driving is about.

Now, the team wants to do more, and it found inspiration from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s public safety initiative.

Its strategy is to get the whole city involved, rather than letting all responsibility fall on the police department. Tuttle said this can be accomplished by reaching out to the Department of Transportation and getting it involved as well.

Another key player is parks and recreation, because the police department saw the necessity of these safety practices at the city’s parks.

“Our grand idea would be that we would involve public works, CyRide, our local bicycle coalition, and we’d talked to them about these sorts of things in the past,” Tuttle said. “We would maybe have the department of transportation have some time of involvement with the campaign.”

Tuttle also mentioned creating some sort of “close call” reporting mechanism that would likely come in the form of an app.

While the department is currently able to evaluate accidents that happen and are reported, it will be able to assess the accidents that almost happen to improve prevention. 

Tuttle said as the “Bike, Walk, Drive Smart” team looks to move forward, it is reaching out to other cities’ departments as well as looking for feedback with in the Ames community.