BETHANY BEACH, Del.- A new year, the same goals for safety.
Bethany Beach's Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Committee highlighted multiple areas of focus for safety improvements as 2024 kicks off.
The committee discussed where the town's W.A.V.E. program could expand, including adding signs around town and making more videos. W.A.V.E., which stands for Wait/Watch, Assess, Verify, and Engage/Enter is an initiative to make people be more cautious when crossing the road or going through a traffic pattern.
The committee also discussed more details signage on Route 1, called rectangular rapid fire beacons. These signs aim to allow people to cross the busy highway safely. Some are already established on Wellington Road. The town is still working with DelDOT to get these new signals installed.
Neighbor Dee Weber is all for the idea.
"I like having the lights across the roads and the traffic stopping," she said. "They're (the drivers) so used to it now here that they will stop when they see you automatically."
Another big piece of discussion was safety of people on bikes- especially J-1 students. J-1 students are people- usually teenagers and young adults- that come from other countries to work for the summer months. The committee said that a lot of J-1 students are not following the rules of the road when riding their bikes- and more needs to be done to make sure they are taking proper precautions to ride safely.
Tom Johnson at Bethany Sports Cards and Collectibles says he see's J-1 Students riding unsafely all the time.
"A lot of people travel Route 26 and they're going all the way down to the Giant, A lot of them don't even have tail lights on their bikes and they're dressed in black and they're like invisible," he said.Â
Furthermore, Sgt. Patrick Foley, who is on the committee, expressed interest in starting an orientation program for these students to get them familiar with basic safety knowledge- such as wearing reflective clothing and having blinkers on their bikes, having speakers from the healthcare field and financial field and more.
He did say that the Bethany Beach Chamber of Commerce is also working on something similar- and that this is not meant to impede on that project.
A big theme from the meeting was working on the town's community outreach- and making sure everyone has the knowledge to keep them safe as they go around town.
