Bicyclists to get more free lights, signs to help them get around Wichita

In an ongoing effort to put a headlight on every bike in Wichita, City Hall has picked up another grant from the state and is preparing for Round Two of free bike-light distributions.

And in another development on the bike front, a Steering Committee moved forward late Monday on piecing together signs to help people get around on the new – and to some confusing – system of bike lanes on city streets.

So far, the city has put 1,200 headlights, 250 red taillights and 400 warning bells into free circulation through a variety of channels. Those were paid for from a $2,000 grant the city got in June from the Kansas Department of Transportation.

On Tuesday, the city announced that it has received another $4,000 from KDOT to expand the light giveaway.

The plan is to spend $1,200 on more lights and bells, $2,000 on bike-safety advertising and $750 on educational materials to distribute to the community.

The new educational brochure will be updated to help people safely navigate the new system of bike lanes, which has caused confusion among motorists and cyclists, said Scott Wadle, a senior planner who oversees bike and pedestrian matters in the city.

Getting a headlight is important because riding without one after dark can result in an $87 traffic ticket. The actual fine is only $20, but each violation triggers an additional $67 in mandatory court fees, most of which have no relation to the violation committed.

Those costs include: $31.50 in standard traffic court cost, a $20.50 payment for the state, $7 for domestic violence programs, $6 for the public defender’s office and $2 for the court technology fund.

The high price of a ticket came to a head Aug. 4 when Chris Brault, a resident who’d been ticketed for riding without a light, came to a City Council meeting and launched a tirade against the bike-light law, beginning with the memorable phrase: “The only reason I’m here today is you are all idiots.”

Since then, the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board has recommended changing the penalty from a moving violation to a “fix-it” ticket.

That would allow ticketed bicyclists to dispose of the matter without paying a fine, by simply putting a light on their bike and then getting any police officer to sign off that they had corrected the problem.

The City Council is expected to take up that issue soon.

The small lights the city is giving out aren’t bright enough for hard-core night riding, but they do comply with the city ordinance and make riders more visible to motorists around them, Wadle said.

Of the 1,200 headlights the city has bought so far, about half have been given to the Police Department to distribute to poorly equipped cyclists they see on patrol.

Roughly 200 have been set aside for an upcoming “Light Up the Night” event that’s still in the planning stages; 150 were given to United Methodist Open Door for homeless and low-income riders; 125 have been sent to neighborhood city halls, and 100 are available for distribution at the downtown City Hall.

Riders needing a bike light can go to any of the city halls or contact Wadle at 316-352-4855.

Signs by committee

As a part of another effort to make Wichita more bike-friendly, the city is moving forward with wayfinding signs to help cyclists use the new – and to some confusing – bike lane system. The signs will have route maps and directions to city landmarks.

Members of the Steering Committee were presented with three proposed sign themes developed by a design group, along with a series of recommendations from other city committees and the results of a public survey on what the biking community liked.

The totality of all that input was that people were more or less evenly split on which of the three sign themes they liked, so the subcommittee drew elements from all three.

The Keeper of the Plains was popular, so they took that element from one of the themes based on that iconic Wichita image.

They took the rectangular shape from another proposed sign theme, based on the Wichita city flag.

Steering Committee members didn’t care for the color scheme on the Keeper signs (brown), or the Wichita flag (blue), so they took the green color scheme from the third proposed sign theme, called “Wichita Together.”

To sum it up, the subcommittee members are recommending redesigned rectangular signs, green with white letters, with the image of the Keeper of the Plains in the corner.

Acknowledging it’s kind of a “plain Jane” design compared with the original themes they were given, subcommittee members were OK with that.

“The scenery I want to look at is not on the sign,” said committee member Eric Mead.

The signs are now going back for a redesign based on the committee’s choices and are expected to come before the City Council for final approval in February, Wadle said.

He hopes to have the signs installed in early to mid-summer next year.

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Bicyclists to get more free lights, signs to help them get around Wichita."