In 2009, David Meek was hit and killed while riding his bicycle on a four lane roadway in Chattanooga. A grand jury declined to indict the at-fault driver. Tension between bicyclists and motorists spiked to a fever pitch. Officer Rob saw an opportunity to address the standoff and improve safety for all roadway users. But one impediment stood in his way: the bicycling community’s lack of faith in police for not properly enforcing rules of the road against culpable drivers in collisions. Few, if any, citations were being issued against drivers who hit bicyclists (as in the case of David Meek). 

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Rob came up with a four-step plan to reverse this downward spiral. This plan was designed to educate police, motorists, and bicyclists about what traffic laws apply. It was also designed improve safety through enforcement. At the Bike Walk Summit, he shared this plan as a model for the police departments from across Mississippi whose officers attended the presentation. 

Officer Rob’s first task was to train his fellow police officers on Tennessee’s bicycle laws. Laws can only be properly enforced when they are understood by those enforcing them. Rob put together a short Bicycling Reference Guide, which was essentially a “Cycling for Dummies” manual. The guide covered issues such as vehicular moving violations and whether a bicyclist needs to have a driver’s license. This bike law training became required for all officers within the CPD. 

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Once the police department was educated, Rob set out to accomplish the second step: educating bicyclists on their rights and responsibilities on the road. Rob quickly pointed out that cyclists know their rights to the road but don’t know all of their responsibilities. To start this conversation, Rob set out to meet with as many bicyclists as possible. He approached bike shops and clubs to set up meetings where he would lead roundtable discussions and absorb yelling and heated comments for an hour or more. 

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According to Rob, this venting was therapeutic for the bicycling community. It was also worthwhile for him by allowing a more meaningful conversation to occur. Once the heat faded, Rob held calm and productive discussions with bicyclists about the importance of the rules of the road and negative public perception when bicyclists run red lights or salmon in traffic. The bicycling community bought in and wanted to be part of the change. 

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Rob was able to move into his third step: educating motorists. To do this, Rob led a program of education, outreach, and enforcement. Rob approached billboard companies to publicize the 3-foot safe passing law, brokering a deal for the companies to use this program as a tax write-off. End result: widespread education of motorists on a key bike law with no out of pocket costs. 

Furthermore, Rob worked with the Department of Transportation to place signage on key bicycling corridors. Typical signs include “Bicyclists May Use Full Lane” and “Share the Road”. Rob also had window graphics wrapped onto police cruisers about the 3 foot passing law. He appeared on numerous television and radio news outlets to have open conversations with the community about their thoughts on sharing the road. Regardless of someone’s personal feelings, these discussions focused the community’s attention on these bicycle safety issues.

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Finally, Rob was able to take the fourth step of his plan: a new technology to make enforcement of the 3-foot passing law possible. Although Tennessee requires drivers to leave a three-foot distance when passing a cyclist, this distance is tough to judge without riding around holding out yardsticks. From a police officer’s perspective, any citation given should be defensible in court. If a police officer is judging the 3-foot distance between a car and bicyclist from some longer distance away, it would be difficult to irrefutably testify before a judge as to exactly how close the car passed. 

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Rob sought the advice from police departments across the country who had a 3-foot law, The resounding answer was that the law is impossible to enforce. Rob realized he needed to spearhead a device that would allow officers to enforce this law. He found an engineer in Austin, Texas, who had developed his own bicycle crash detection system. This system used trigonometry and sonar to alert the rider when a car was approaching from behind too closely. Now, the engineer needed to make it work for law enforcement. 

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Ultimately, Rob and the engineering firm, Codaxus, LLC, developed a product called the C3FT. This device is a handlebar mounted device that measures the number of inches left by a passing vehicle. Rob was quick to point out that he does not receive any sale proceeds from this device, but he is proud that it was his brainchild and that it is now in production.

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