During an interview with KQED's Michael Krasny on Monday, SFPD Captain Al Casciato mentioned that the city will launch a traffic school for cyclists — classes that you can take if you're cited while riding a bike, just like you can do if you're cited while driving. This program, according to Casciato, is similar to one in Sausalito. Casciato says, "within the next couple weeks [SFPD will work on] a bicycle training course and also a pedestrian training course for those who are citied for pedestrian violations and also for bicycling violations."
According to SF Examiner, "Bert Hill, chairman of The City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, said a program is being developed by his group, police and the District Attorney’s Office to give first-time bicycling violators a dose of information instead of — or in addition to — a normal moving-violation citation. More details of the program, which could be rolled out by the fall, are still being determined."
The idea, according, to Hill, will be to make the classes "less punitive and more of a community outreach effort." Which makes little to no sense, really, but... there you have it. This all comes on the heels of Bucchere-gate, the noted incident where a cyclist accidentally killed a pedestrian after plowing through a Castro crosswalk.
No word yet if a comedy cyclist traffic school will be available, but one can dream, can't they?
Listen to the interview below: