Cape council to consider bicycle safety initiative
The Cape Coral Police Department is scheduled to give a presentation on a bicycle safety initiative, which lays out the challenges facing cyclists and pedestrians in the city, during Monday’s Cape Coral City Council meeting.
Those challenges include limited bike lanes, sidewalks and lighting especially along higher speed thoroughfares. Police statistics say there are 3,600 crashes in the city each year. Less than 1 percent of those involve bikes or pedestrians, but there is a higher frequency of serious injury or death associated with them.
The initiative seeks to create public awareness to change behavior for a safer environment for bikes and pedestrians through education, enforcement and a high visibility police bicycle unit. That part-time unit would consist of 12 recently trained officers.
In other business on the agenda, Councilmember Jim Burch will bring forth a discussion on a community garden program on city-owned land. He has fashioned his program along the lines of one in the city of Austin, Texas. The priority in Austin was to provide nutritious food, promote sustainability, reduce energy needs, contribute to food security and support the local economy.
Council also will hash out the details of establishing an alternate member for the South Cape Advisory Board. Another ordinance amends the Community Redevelopment Plan for South Cape CRA to provide for the change in composition of the board of commissioners and to include the CRA vision plan.
One last resolution proposes to amend the ruled of procedure for council agendas and meetings regarding public comment opportunities. The resolution seeks to delete the requirement that citizens wishing to speak complete and submit a speaker’s form to the city clerk.
Cape Coral City Council meets in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 1015 Cultural Park Boulevard. Meetings begin at 4:30 p.m.
It will be the last council meeting of 2014. Regular meetings resume on Jan. 12.