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Town, County approve $47,000 amendment for e-bike safety programs after Pathways report
Summary
Friends of Pathways presented survey and workshop findings on e-bike safety; joint boards directed staff to prepare a budget amendment split $25,380 (county) / $21,620 (town) to expand youth education, a pathways ambassador program and targeted enforcement/engineering work.
A joint presentation by Friends of Pathways and town staff that summarized community surveys, interviews and a stakeholder workshop prompted the Town of Jackson and the Teton County Board of Commissioners to direct staff to prepare a combined $47,000 budget amendment for pathways bike-safety work.
Friends of Pathways and town staff presented results of a spring community outreach process that included interviews with stakeholders, a public survey with about 1,300 responses and a multi-stakeholder workshop. Brian Schilling, town pathways coordinator, said the effort focused on e-bike safety but emphasized that many issues raised apply to cycling in general.
"Speed is at the core of a lot of this," Alex Norton of OPS Strategies told the boards, summarizing the consultants' findings. Norton said survey comments and stakeholder interviews showed speed, rule noncompliance and interaction at pathway intersections as the most common sources of conflict between users.
Friends of Pathways offered six near-term priorities drawn from the outreach: expand school-based bike skills and parent education; keep class 1–3 e-bikes safe while keeping off-pathway vehicles off the system; launch a pathways ambassador program; adopt and align pathway regulations across jurisdictions; deploy low-cost safety improvements at intersections; and add calming/separation measures and targeted signage in congested areas.
Jim Rooks, bike-safety coordinator for Friends of Pathways, described an expanded school program and a plan to use an online course called Pedalace for middle-school safety instruction. Rooks said the group plans to extend instruction to all public and private schools and increase from roughly 1,200 students reached this spring toward an objective of 2,500 students across grades K–9 in future years.
Friends of Pathways outlined an overall budget for the program and reported existing outside contributions. Rooks said the group had secured funding from community partners (including foundation and tourism board grants) and asked the town and county to provide the final local share.
After discussion about timing and capacity, the county and town each approved motions to direct staff to bring forward a budget amendment for the pathways department to fund bike-safety programming. Commissioner Joe Probst moved the county motion and Commissioner Carlman seconded; Councilwoman Spear moved the town motion and Councilwoman Beeman seconded. Both bodies amended the requested amount and approved the county share at $25,380 and the town share at $21,620, to be added to the pathways budget and spent on bike safety. Each motion passed unanimously.
"We want to radically expand" school programming and the ambassador effort, Rooks told the boards, noting that some elements — school partnerships, ambassador design and law-enforcement cooperation — are already in motion.
Friends of Pathways emphasized that the approach blends engineering, education and targeted enforcement/encouragement. The group proposed a volunteer ambassador program that would include a seasonal stipend, branded e-bike and coordination with law enforcement liaisons; Friends of Pathways said earlier fundraising covers most ambassador start-up costs, while the town/county contribution would cover program expansion, school curriculum embedding, subsidized online courses for students and targeted intersection improvements.
Town and county staff said they will return with the formal budget-amendment documents and line-item breakdowns for the pathways account. The boards agreed the money should be available promptly to support fall schooling and the upcoming season of high pathway use.
The vote makes the amendment part of both jurisdictions' fiscal planning; staff will present the formal ordinance/amendment paperwork in line with each jurisdiction's budget process.
Ending: The pathway program leaders asked the public and private partners to continue fundraising and volunteer recruitment; Friends of Pathways said it will coordinate with the school district and law enforcement to begin program rollout in the coming weeks.
