LOOKing to Make Cycling Safer in NYC

[intro music]

Janette Sadik-Khan: [00:05] Over the next six weeks we are going to be seeing LOOK campaign ads, like you’ll see behind me today. Those LOOK campaign ads are going to be running on buses, on bus shelters, on kiosks, on taxi tops, on gas station and in postcards in restaurants. They’re going to be featured in TimeOut New York, New York Magazine, and on radio and television ads.

Paul White: [00:29] We now have a citywide ad campaign that is doing really two things. One, it’s reminding motorists that cyclists have as much right to the road as they do, reminding motorists that they should look out for cyclists and expect to see cyclists and negotiate around them. And two, it’s reminding cyclists that because we are legitimate road users we also have responsibilities to the road. It’s really putting cycling and motoring on an equal footing and recognising that both parties have to negotiate around each other out there on the roads.

Sarinya Srisakul: [01:07] We’re from the Bike Messenger… New York Bike Messenger Foundation and [unintelligible 01:06]. We are a foundation that gives grants out to bike messengers who are injured on the job. And we also give out information like this [unintelligible 01:15]. It just covers all the bases of what bike messengers [unintelligible 01:19] on a daily basis. This new campaign is really good, the LOOK campaign, because people are aware, more aware that, you know, New York is a biking town and to look before you open your door.

Alison Franks: [01:30] We’re planning a bike parade for the children of all ages to raise awareness of bikers in the East Village because there are a lot of bikers and a lot of kids on bikes, but not necessarily a lot of safety precautions in place for them.

Susan Levine: [01:44] With Mayor Bloomberg’s, you know, Green Plan for 2030, with the new Commissioner of the Department of Transportation being sympathetic to bicycling as a mode of transportation and stating her support for making this city a more amenable place for biking transportation, I’m hoping that that will filter out to the general population and people will begin to see that biking is cheaper, it’s easier, it makes sense in a city like ours.

Betsy Gotbaum: [02:13] Now for drivers, we want to beg drivers, insist that they share the road with bicyclists, and that they’re fair, and that they look in their mirrors and make sure that when they see a bicyclist they slow down a little.

Janette Sadik-Khan: [02:28] Got a simple message here today, look around you and look out for each other when you’re going along New York City streets.

[music]