May is National Bike Month

SALT LAKE CITY— In the latest Chief’s Message, Sgt. Lisa Pascadlo talks bike safety and offers a few tips on Road Respect.

“The month of May, nationally, is Bike Month, and we at the Salt Lake City Police Department encourage all of our road users to get out and take advantage of the [bike-friendly] facilities Salt Lake City has,” Sgt. Pascadlo says.

Taped inside Sugar House-based Fishers Cyclery, Pascadlo talks with Griffin, a Fishers bike tech, about a basic tune-up for bringing a bicycle out of winter storage. Make sure your bike tech:

• checks tire pressure,
• tightens wheels and checks for rubbing,
• and runs the gears to make ensure smooth shifting.

Griffin also advises cyclists of all levels to do their own safety check each time they head out for a ride. “Every time you get on your bike you’re going to want to check a couple of main things. The first thing is that your wheels are on properly, in case you removed a wheel to put it in a vehicle previously; you’re going to want to check your brakes, that they aren’t rubbing and they’re working properly, you’re going to want to check the other small bolts, including your seat bolts and your stem bolts, to make sure that those are tight so that you won’t have any turning while you’re riding.”

And don’t forget to dust off your safety gear and moves:

• a helmet and front light;
• emergency repair kit, including an extra tire tube, a patch kit, a hand pump, tire levers and/or a wrench;
• clothing with bright colors to increase visibility;
• and hand signals to communicate clearly with other road users.

Pascadlo closes the video with a pitch for Road Respect: “this is the concept where it doesn’t matter what mode of transportation you’re using, whether you’re in a car, on a bike, walking, riding, whatever, you need to remember that we all need to use these roads to get places, whether we’re enjoying it for recreation or using it for transportation, and that means we need to respect each other and understand what each other’s rights and responsibilities are.”

To learn more about bike safety, Road Respect, and other bike-friendly resources in Salt Lake City, watch the full video online at www.police.slc.gov or YouTube.com/slcpd.

A big thanks to Fishers Cyclery for participating in this video.

About the “Chief’s Message”
Chief Burbank issues a monthly video message to help the public reduce its exposure to, or mitigate the effects of, crime, as well as spotlight different parts of the city’s public safety team. All “Chief’s Messages” are archived on the newsroom page of www.police.slc.gov and the “Chief’s Message” playlist of http://www.youtube.com/slcpd. To recommend a topic to Chief Burbank, please send an email to: askthechief@slcgov.com.