SACRAMENTO – To help support the California Highway Patrol’s year-long effort to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety, the department was awarded the California Pedestrian and Bicyclist Enforcement and Education Project VIII grant.

The CHP will use the grant funds to conduct enhanced-enforcement patrols and public awareness campaigns through September 30, 2021.

“Whether traveling by motor vehicle, bicycle, or on foot, we all share the road,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “Bicycle and pedestrian safety is everyone’s responsibility. This grant provides us additional resources to focus on the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists, our most vulnerable roadway users.”

Pedestrian and bicycle fatalities accounted for nearly 33 percent of all traffic-related deaths in California in 2018. The CHP reminds motorists to always scan each intersection for potential foot and bicycle traffic and to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians whether in marked or unmarked crosswalks.

On Wednesday, October 7 – the National Center for Safe Routes to School’s “Walk and Bike to School Day” – the CHP will focus on locations with high numbers of pedestrian and bicyclist crashes. Officers in plain clothes will work with uniformed officers to monitor crosswalks for motorists and pedestrians who fail to yield the right-of-way or who take unsafe or illegal actions.

The CHP will also use the grant funding to educate the public on safe and courteous traffic behavior through public presentations and safety publications and to provide bicycle and pedestrian safety equipment for distribution including bicycle helmets and reflective gear.

Funding for this program was provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety through a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.