Penn is on the road to better bicycle safety.
The Division of Public Safety hosted a kickoff event yesterday for its "Share-the-Road" campaign, designed to teach the public basic bike-safety practices and laws.
"It's an educational campaign," Capt. Joseph Fischer of the Penn Police said. "The focus of it is to inform bicyclists, motorists and pedestrians as to what their responsibilities are."
In 2007, there were 698 cyclist deaths in the United States, including 20 in Pennsylvania, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Almost three out of every four cyclist deaths occur in an urban area.
Fischer said the "Share-the-Road" campaign was timed to coincide with the increased bike riding to and from Penn's campus that occurs when the weather begins to get warmer.
Over the next few weeks, Penn Police will be distributing pamphlets titled "Driving and Cycling Safety on Penn's Campus."
The pamphlet has facts about bike accidents and includes the University's bike policy.
It also contains information about laws regulating bike safety that are not widely known, according to Fischer.
For example, it is illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalks of Philadelphia.
Yesterday's kickoff event, held at the entrance of Locust Walk at 34th and Walnut Streets, was co-sponsored by the City's Office of Transportation & Utilities and included speakers from the City, the Penn Police, Neighborhood Bike Works and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.
Representatives of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Drexel University, Eastern Mountain Sports, Trophy Bikes, Medical Emergency Response Team, Graduate and Professional Students Assembly and the Undergraduate Assembly were also in attendance.
"We tried to get all the people that are stakeholders," Fischer said, "from people who sell bikes to people who ride them."
