STI Meeting Recap March 13

As submitted by Vanessa Urbach, a runner on the trails.

Hello all!!

I wanted to share a quick update on a recent meeting I helped facilitate about trail safety— and I thought you might be interested in the discussion and the ideas that emerged. Also, a huge thank you to Lt. Davis, Sgt. Perez, and Ofc. Fender for attending the meeting to answer questions and discuss Omaha Police Dept. (OPD) Bike Patrol. Your time, support, and insights were truly valuable and much appreciated!

As a recap: this is related to the Trail Signage Project Sgt. Kevin Housh and I started after Mollie Tibbets was killed. Which consisted of us asking Parks & Recreation (P&R) to place signage on every overpass along the trail so trail users could better identify their location (non-stop for 6+ years). It was deflected and turned down multiple times, but the main contact from P&R we had to deal with has retired.  We are now being told the signage is part of the Master Plan.

This group and these efforts are a continuation, and new collaboration to better our Omaha Trail Systems. I am truly attempting to be brief, I promise! I know some of you have met Cindy Tefft, cc-ed on this email. Cindy has been the one spearheading this group and she is an incredible advocate for our trail systems! We discovered at one of my PAC meetings that she had actually been working on a similar Trail Safety Project years before I had begun my efforts.

A member of the group Thursday night, a very active cyclist, came up with the idea that it would be nice to have OPD partner with Parks and Rec to develop engaging graphics that educate trail users about proper etiquette and safety. The thought process was specifically about motorized vehicles on the trail. The cyclist that brought forth the idea stated there are so many campaigns like “You Drink, You Drive, You Lose” and information about the consequences to those actions, that it would be nice to have something informing people of the consequences of motorized vehicles on trails, and other similar offenses.

That being said, our group is working to take our concerns to City Council, aiming for clearer ordinances on motorized vehicle use on trails along with tougher penalties for violations. So for now, holding off on creating any infographic about that specifically ( the consequences ) but still focus on general trail etiquette – which does still include no motorized vehicles on the trail.

While not the most detailed, the Omaha P&R website does have a Trails tab,
and a “Rules and Regulations” tab.

The next great idea that came from the meeting was creating something similar to OCCP ( Omaha Coalition of Citizen Patrols) but have it be a Citizen Bike Patrol. I am aware that overall volunteer efforts such as OCCP and Neighborhood Watch are difficult to get participation; simply because people are busy! However, in the meeting, many of the cyclists that are part of cycling groups expressed interest in being active in a “Citizen Bike Patrol”. This would require OPD buy-in and have participants go through Officer-led training similar to OCCP.

The meeting sparked the idea of having crime prevention specialists like yourselves involved in future discussions and collaborations. I truly believe your insights would add great value as we work towards safer trails.

I have also CC-ed Eliana Nichols, with Spark – Fabric Lab on this report. I had mentioned to her that it would be great to connect with all the Crime Prevention Specialists, especially Samantha in the Northeast Precinct, given the North Omaha Trail Project’s focus. You can find more information about the project here: https://www.sparkcdi.org/north-omaha-trail. It’s a very exciting initiative!

I’m available to assist and support in any capacity and would love to know if you’re interested in joining future meetings or contributing your thoughts on these initiatives.

Click the image to view the slides