With students back in classrooms, Morden Police Service is reminding drivers, cyclists, and personal electric vehicle riders to slow down, follow traffic rules, and pay extra attention around the city’s schools.
Const. Jeff Forster, the service’s community resource officer, said the return of school means more children are travelling through Morden on bikes and other devices, while vehicle traffic increases around schools.
“To speed is probably the biggest thing for us that we see, and we continue to have issues with speeding all through summer,” Forster said. “So we ask that motorists really obviously observe that the school zones are now in effect, 30 kilometers an hour.”
Forster said he regularly patrols school zones in the morning, at lunchtime, and after classes. While motorists generally follow the rules, he said rolling through stop signs remains an issue.
“It’s kind of always been an ongoing thing that make sure when you’re coming up to a stop sign that we’re not rolling through stop signs that we’re coming to a full complete stop,” he said.
Bikes and electric vehicles on Morden streets
Forster is also reminding young cyclists that Manitoba requires riders under 18 to wear a helmet and that cyclists must follow traffic rules.
He said Morden is seeing a growing number of electric-powered devices, including scooters and bicycles.
The City of Morden implemented new rules this year for personal electric vehicles, or PEVs. Forster said police are continuing an education campaign to help residents understand them.
Under the rules outlined by Forster, helmets are mandatory for all PEV riders, only one person can ride a device at a time, and riders are not permitted on city sidewalks or boulevards.
Riders must stay as close to the right-hand curb as possible and follow traffic rules. When riding at dusk or after dark, Forster said PEVs should have an operating headlight and front and rear reflectors.
Although hand signals are not part of the bylaw, Forster strongly recommends using them.
“I think like with bicycles, I think it’s really important that you communicate with drivers what your intentions are,” he said.
Forster also encourages students riding bikes to school to use a good-quality lock and, importantly, actually secure the bike to the rack.
“I do still see a lot of people, kids parking their bikes in the bike rack, actually with the lock on the bike, not actually being used on the rack,” he said. “So please make sure if you use a lock or buy a lock to actually use the lock.”
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Building safe habits early
Forster’s work in schools extends beyond traffic enforcement. He gives bike safety presentations to kindergarten to Grade 4 students in the spring and works with schools throughout the year.
He said learning road safety early can help children develop habits they will carry with them as they move from bicycles to PEVs and eventually begin driving.
Forster said his approach in school zones also emphasizes education before enforcement.
“I really believe that education is the key in these kind of situations, more so than enforcement,” he said.
That philosophy extends to another part of his community resource role, building relationships with Morden youth.
Forster works with schools to identify youth who could benefit from mentorship and said he currently mentors about two or three young people. The informal program can be as simple as going for coffee or lunch and giving a young person another adult to talk to.
“That’s one of my big things is building relationships with the youth in the community,” he said.
Forster said one young person he worked with, alongside Community Mobilization and other organizations, is now pursuing adult education and a career in a trade.
He sees early intervention and mentorship as part of creating a safer community.
“If you can get to the root cause early and address it, generally speaking, it prevents it from becoming a big problem later down the line,” Forster said.
