Something that sticks out to me, is Andy’s strong support for the contingency fee model where, he says, “someone with $50 in the bank can take on General Motors” because GJEL attorneys don’t get paid unless their clients win. And speaking about some of his biggest cases, Andy is always more concerned about the practical result than the firm’s financial benefit. GJEL was a large part of a lawsuit, for example, that recovered $395 million from a healthcare corporation that routinely approved unnecessary heart procedures at Redding Medical Center. “It’s not the amount of money that I’m proud of,” says Andy. “It’s that Tenet Healthcare made a huge change in its corporate governance.”

As part of the profile, Ellison spoke to some of Andy’s colleagues, who each gave glowing reviews. “He’s about absolutely honesty, and he’s a man of his word…and it makes for a very efficient process, regardless of which side you’re on,” said Oakland defense attorney David Samuelsen.

“He’s always concerned that these good people have suffered a devastating event, and he wants to get them someone who can help, whether it’s with his firm or some other firm,” said Cynthia McGuinn of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & McGuinn. “I would even go so far as to say he gives his clients the same interest and support he would give his own family.”

We’d like to send a big thank you to David Samuelson and Cynthia McGuinn for their comments. Read the profile and Andy’s firm bio for more on his background, mentors, and continuing professional philosophy.

GJEL: You have a strong record on environmental issues, but that’s no longer what you are known for. Why did you decide to focus on reducing distracted driving?

Joe Simitian: When I introduced a hands free bill in my first year, I was probably naïve about my prospects. Verizon Wireless supported the bill from the very start. But every other cell phone company in the country opposed it. What was frustrating about the opposition was that every one of the companies already told consumers that they had to pull over to the side of the road to make calls or text. So the bill I introduced was seen as telling people to do the same thing they were supposed to do anyway. Finally in 2006 I was able to get both sides of the legislature to pass the bill and Governor Schwarzenegger signed it in to law. It took affect July 1, 2008.

This was really not what I thought I would be working on when I got the legislature, but the more I worked on the issue the more I realized it was a life saver and we weren’t going to miss the opportunity due to industry opposition.

GJEL: The laws already in place have been pretty successful. Why increase the fines?

JS: There’s a base fine and then there are a series of fees and penalties that get added to it. The base fine has been $20 for a first offense, which is very modest. The bill I’ve introduced would increase this to $50 for first and $100 for a subsequent offense. The motivation is that we’ve had some time since the law took effect in July 2008 and the results we’ve seen are very encouraging. Fatalities are down 20%, which is 700 fewer fatalities each year in California alone. The results are encouraging.

We continue to hear from the folks at CHP that while the compliance is good, it could still be better. That’s not surprising to me. Enacting seat belt legislation, for example, took a long time. Now it’s routine that when you climb into the car, you buckle the belt. Over time, we’ve gotten 90% compliance on seat belts. It will take time, education, and enforcement. But we’ve raised the notion that if we had a higher fine, it would be a more significant deterrent and we could save even more lives. The bill also calls for a point on the driving record, because that gets everybody’s attention, and cuts across income levels. For folks that are more prosperous, they can shove a ticket off, but for people who are less prosperous, it can be a severe hit. A point on one’s license has the same impact across the board.

GJEL: Due to opposition from cell phone companies, it took nearly five years to pass the existing law. Will the increased fines face similar opposition?

JS: The cell phone companies’ position has evolved over time. For whatever reason, they have been largely neutral on heightened fees and I suspect that they will stay that way. The tougher challenge is the fact that the economy is bad, which gives all of us pause when it comes to increasing fines. But the $50 fine is relatively modest: half what you get if you litter while in your car, or use the carpool lane when you’re not supposed to. I hope the bill will pass this year, but due to term limits and retirements, there is a whole new crop of folks in the state senate to educate and persuade on an issue that won’t be all that familiar to some of my colleagues.

GJEL: How does adding the bike fines change the politics of the bill?

JS: That a bike fine wasn’t already included in the bill is the result of a drafting oversight in 2006. The vehicle code applies to both motorists and cyclists. The 2006 hands free law made reference to motor vehicles, which meant that the law did not apply to cyclists, and changed the way the motor code operated. The new bike fine is just a clean up, but it sparked more interest than I had expected. The cycling community is of mixed minds on this. Some don’t want cyclists to be fined, but a more serious faction says “look we want to share the road, and we should be seen equally under the law.”

GJEL: The new bike fines show that cell phone fines are spreading. Could it eventually expand to cover texting while walking down the street?

JS: I don’t think so. For me, it’s gratifying to see the broader public awareness and acknowledgement of safety risks with distracted driving and cell phones in particular. Last fall, the Obama administration and Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood called a national distracted driving summit. And a year later, everyone from the Lahood to Oprah is focused on the risks of distracted driving. The Public Policy Institute of California took a look at driving laws in three other states and the District of Columbia just before our law went into affect. Their analysis was that hands free had reduced fatalities in every jurisdiction and time period studied. The folks at PPIC predicted that we would have 300 to 900 fewer fatalities each year as a result, and 700 is where we ended up.

GJEL: What do you think about a potential federal law against distracted driving? Is this a states’ rights issue?

JS: They’re looking mostly at texting. Things move slowly in congress, it is a much bigger battleship to turn in a new direction. I’m hopeful, but I will take the wait and see approach. It’s a tough call. On the one hand, as a state legislator, I’m mindful of our desire to craft legislation that fits California, and on the other hand, if the federal legislation is less rigorous than what we have in California and takes precedent, that would be a real concern.

Photo credit: Senator Simitian

Today I’m switching gears and bringing you an interview with someone who is not lawyer, but who nonetheless can give us legal types some great insight into what it takes to be successful online. Matt McGee is a hyperlocal blogger who has been really successful in using blogging to promote his wife’s real estate business, and by doing so, has made himself a bit of an expert on hyperlocal blogging.

While some attorneys blog solely about legal issues, and while blogging about legal issues is one effective way to market a law practice, building a relationship with the community through hyperlocal blogging can also be effective. Matt was kind of enough to offer us some insight into the world of hyperlocal blogging, and how it can be used to successfully promote a business. If you’re hungering for more of Matt McGee after reading this interview, be sure to check out his site, Hyperlocal Blogger, where you can also find links to the real estate blogs he and his wife use to promote her real estate business.

GJEL: What inspired you to start hyperlocal blogs for your real estate market, and what were your initial goals for them?

Matt: The idea at the beginning was mostly to promote my wife’s real estate business, but it was also somewhat of an experiment in local blogging and a learning experience of sorts. The goal for each was to have a site for each of the main cities in our area that anyone thinking about moving here could follow along and learn about the community, while also setting up my wife as the local expert for each area. I’d love to say we started the blogs with purely altruistic, serve-the-community ideas in mind, but it was as much a business idea as anything.

GJEL: Have those changed at all as you’ve gotten into it more?

Matt: Well, the goals are still the same, but we haven’t really executed as well as I’d like. My wife is too busy to blog about real estate as much as she should, so I’ve done most of the writing about community news and events. So, I’d say the goals are still the same, but the focus has changed due to the reality of the situation. Instead of being about the town and about real estate in the town, each of the blogs is mostly about the towns … with just a little real estate in the mix. I don’t know if that’s good or bad; it’s just not what I was expecting. We’re probably about 90%-10% in terms of general content vs. real estate content. I’d prefer it to be about 70%-30%.

GJEL: How do you walk the line between blogging about your business and blogging about your community?

Matt: Well, I guess I answered this one to some degree already, but let me reply in general on the idea of self-promotion and local/community blogs. When we launched all four blogs, a reader would have had to do some digging to find out that they were, to some degree, business blogs. Sure, each has “real estate” in its name … but the content was all community-based. There was no advertising of my wife’s real estate business. Aside from a mention on the “About” pages, we downplayed the real estate connection completely.

We did that because we wanted to attract readers from across the community – not just readers who were looking to buy or sell a home. We also did it because real estate has a big spam element when it comes to online marketing, SEO, etc. So we decided to hold off on any real estate promotion for a while, to allow the blogs to build up some readership and some trust with the search engines.

I think any small biz person that’s thinking about starting a local/community blog should keep in mind that, generally speaking, if people are looking for information about your business, they’ll visit your business web site or blog. They come to a community blog looking for community information. An occasional business-related post is probably fine — say, for example, if the business is supporting some local event or charity — but general business blog posts should probably stay off the community blog.

GJEL: Tri-Cities isn’t quite as big a market as the Bay Area, obviously, but are there common types of content you look for, or places you look, when you’re trying to figure out what to write?  Do you think the size of the area where a business draws its customers from should affect any of that thinking?

Matt: Well, there are different types of local blogs. Some are very much into hard news and crime, and so in a bigger city you’ll get more opportunity to report that. We live in a fairly low-crime area, and since our blogs are mostly designed to promote the area and indirectly promote a real estate business, we generally stay away from reporting crime. That said, there was a burglar in our local mall a year or so ago, and we posted about that — and that post got a LOT of traffic.

I think in most cases, a successful hyperlocal blog will share a lot of community news and information that traditional media skips. Posts about upcoming events always seem to do well on our blogs. The newspaper might only give an event 2-3 sentences, but if the event is important to people, they’ll be looking online for more information.

GJEL: Are there any ideas for content themes, or categories, that you would recommend as a “default setting” if you were just starting a blog?

Matt: All of our blogs have a similar set of categories that seem to work well for us: Business, Events, Life, News, Real Estate, Schools, and Sights. Most of those should be self-explanatory, but maybe not Life and Sights. With the Life category, that’s where we post stuff like a trip to the local museum, or “wouldn’t it be great if we had one of these in town?” posts. And the Sights category is where we post photos from around town, like a nice sunset or a shot of people trying to cool off in 100+ degree heat. So far, everything we’ve written has fit into one of those categories.

GJEL: It seems like hyperlocal blogging would work really well for a real estate business, because getting people interested in real estate means getting them interested in the community. Do you have any advice for people who are trying to incorporate hyperlocal blogging with another type of business (i.e. law )?

Matt: It definitely is a natural fit for real estate professionals, but I think it can work in the legal industry and others, too. Again, I’d say the key to making it work is to focus on making a community/neighborhood blog, not an industry blog. It’s all about focus. If you blog about what’s happening in town — school news, new businesses opening up, local events, etc., it doesn’t matter if you’re a lawyer, plumber, shoe store owner … whatever! People are online and looking for local information, so it doesn’t matter who you are.

The problem is in turning blog visitors into customers, and that’s still a gray area for us. In the interest of building readership and trust, we held off on any promotion of my wife’s business for about the first year the blogs were online. At that point, we added a template to the bottom of each post that shows her photo and says something about “if you’re here looking for real estate help, please contact” her and gives her phone number. I’m still hesitant to push much further on self-promotion because I think it’ll turn people off.

All of which is to say that, if you asked me what the direct and certain benefit has been of our local blogs on my wife’s real estate business, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you. But I can say this: When she asks people how they found her, many clients say “You’re all over the Internet!” They may not remember which blog, web site, or PPC ad it was, but we know the visibility is good. And the blogs tend to rank well for her primary business keywords, so if nothing else they’re taking up space in the search results that a competitor might have had.

GJEL: How have you incorporated Twitter, if at all, in meeting other bloggers in your community?  Do you ever do any offline meetups in Tri-Cities?

Matt: My wife has been to about 4-5 local tweetups, but I’ve only been able to get to one, I think. They’re good, I think, for meeting people — especially that tend to be online influencers to some degree. They’re active on Twitter, Facebook, and with their own blogs, so it’s nice to be part of a local network like that. And word-of-mouth marketing is important for all small businesses, so hopefully as these people get to know you better, they might be more likely to tell a friend — “Hey, I know a real estate agent you should call.”

GJEL: HyperLocalBlogger.com is obviously THE place to go for local blog techniques and ideas. Are there any other websites or eBooks you might recommend to people who are just starting local blogs?

Matt: If you’re just starting, I think the focus should probably be on blogging in general as opposed to local blogging — I mean, in terms of reading and learning. As you learn to create a great blog, it’s pretty easy to make your focus on local content. Problogger.net and Copyblogger.com are two great ones for blog advice. Remarkablogger.com is another great one. And there’s a ton of great articles going back three years in the Blogging category of the SEMMY Awards - that would be a treasure-trove of material for a starting blogger.

This week brings with it more interviews of the people who are at the very top of the game when it comes to online presence. Today I bring you an interview with John Day, a prominent attorney who has been blogging since 2004. I met John at a Beer for Bloggers event hosted by Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog following the Avvocating Conference, and was quickly impressed with his early adoption of blogging, and acceptance of the idea that an attorney needs to have a strong online presence. We got to talking, discovered that we grew up only a few miles from each other and knew some of the same people, and somehow I managed to convince an already busy John that he should do an interview for this blog. So here it is, one of the legal industry’s early bloggers, sharing his thoughts on the topic.

GJEL: John, you were one of the early adopters of blogging in the legal field. Can you explain how you found out that blogging was something that could be beneficial to you and your practice, and how you decided to start blogging?

John: I discovered blogging in late 2004 and thought it would be a great way to share important, timely information with my fellow lawyers on an informal basis.  I started the blog in Feb. 2005 and 1712 posts later I still use it for that purpose.

GJEL: You use Lexblog as the platform for your blog. How did you decide to go that route?

John: Kevin O’Keefe was, and is, the leader in the field of lawyer blogging.  I went to him for the same reason I buy suits at Brooks Brothers.

GJEL: What were some of your goals for social media for your practice? Did you expect to network, find clients, improve your Google rankings, or something else? Do you feel that you’re achieving those goals?

John: My goal was to share information with the hope that referring lawyers would see that I was a competent lawyer who kept up-to-date in the field.  I hope that goal has been reached, but it is difficult to measure the effect of blogging alone when I also write books, articles, newsletters and do a significant amount of speaking in the torts area.

GJEL: The list of speaking engagements on your firm profile is quite lengthy, you’ve written a book, and you’re a practicing attorney. How on earth do you find time to blog?

John: I usually blog between 4:15 and 5:00  in the morning, although sometimes on weekends I will do several posts at once and schedule them for  publication later that week.  The  software used by LexBlog permits me to write a post one day and actually make it available for viewing later.  I confess that blogging takes time and when I am in the book updating mode (which is right now – the third edition of Day on Torts comes out in April) things get a little hectic.

GJEL: In addition to blogging, you and one of your colleagues edit the Trial Law Report newsletter, which covers many aspects of civil litigation in Tennessee. How did you decide to put out a newsletter, and what are some of your goals in doing so? Is the intended audience for the newsletter different from the intended audience of the blog?

John: I publish and write the newsletter with the goal of educating judges and lawyers (including myself) on changes in the Tennessee law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial.  I also do it to make money – I charge for the newsletter and basically get paid to stay current on the law while at the same time demonstrating to my peers that I do so.

GJEL: You and I met at the Avvocating Conference last week. Did you come up with any new ideas to expand your personal or firm presence on the internet? How do you feel about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms and their uses for attorneys?

John: I did not meet you at the conference – I met you in a bar.  You say you were at the conference and I will assume that you were.  On social media – lawyers, especially us old guys, need to understand that the cheese has moved.  Social media, a phrase that did not exist when I started practicing law, will continue to be a growing force as lawyers try to figure out how to market their practice efficiently.

Today I’m happy to bring you the wisdom of the fabulous Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo. Conrad (whose interview I posted here Monday) was the first person I had contact with at Avvo, and as head of Marketing at Avvo, he’s a great person to hear from. But I’m really happy to be able to have Mark’s input on how the internet and social media are affecting the legal industry, because Avvo is his brainchild. Mark is also full of good advice. Since not everyone was able to get it first hand at the Avvocating Conference, I’m happy to share the wealth.

GJEL: In one of your presentations at last month’s Avvocating conference, you mentioned a concept called “the long tail.”  Can you explain a little bit more about what that means for our readers?

Mark: People think of search as very general queries (e.g., divorce lawyer California”).  As the Web takes on more content and search engines become more sophisticated in finding that content, people are generating very specific search queries.  “I am looking for the best California divorce lawyer that can handle immigration issues – especially visa issues” is a long-tail search query, and Google is able to match it with 72,600,000 pages.  The more diverse, quality content you have out on the Web, the more often Google will serve up your page  in response to a long-tail search.  And that page does not have to be a website or blog.  It can be as simple as an answer to question on Avvo.

GJEL: How does Avvo’s Q&A fit into that concept?

Mark: perfectly, actually.  Without even trying, lawyers answering questions on Avvo are putting together all sorts of keyword combinations that the search engines will match with a long-tail search.  Q&A allows lawyers to build out thousands of keyword-rich, individual pages that are simply free advertising aimed at potential clients – whether they find the lawyer’s answer via Avvo or a search engine.

GJEL: What are the other benefits of participating in the Q&A section on Avvo?

Mark: There are many.  First, in addition to the new business and free advertising lawyers get through our Q&A, we give our top contributors free advertising in various places on our site.  Second, many lawyers use their Q&A to demonstrate their expertise during initial consultations – either over the phone or in-person.  Third, many lawyers simply like to help people and will answers many more questions than will ever turn into clients.  Finally, many lawyers tell me that answering questions is cathartic and fun.  They like to get on the site and simply answer a couple of questions to ease their mind; because, in reality, many of the questions are very rudimentary.  The questioners are so confused, and the simplest guidance can help them.

GJEL: Are there other portals that offer a similar opportunity?

Mark: There are Q&A sites all over the Web.  Most are quite small in comparison to Avvo.  Comparing the larger Q&A forums, we are different because we focus on the legal profession and we know that everyone who answers is a lawyer, which makes the quality of our Q&A much higher than, say, Yahoo’s or LinkedIn’s Q&A forums.

GJEL: In one of your slides, you showed an amazing number of legal portals — do you have any recommendations for small law firms like ours to maintain or monitor our presence on all or most of them?

Mark: Build and maintain or your Core Web Presence (“CWP”) (e.g., a website, blog or Avvo profile), and then pick four or five online social networking sites where you will spend most of your time.  You might meander now and then, but becoming part of a big site’s social network is key.  Then, from that social network, link back to your CWP as much as appropriate.  It will help drive traffic to and branding of your CWP, which is your calling card on the Web.  The social networking sites are the satellites to your CWP.

GJEL: Is there a good way to prioritize our efforts?

Mark: Yes, by respecting this “Core Web Presence” strategy and being a strong community member in a limited number of satellite sites. I often recommend LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as the best satellites to supplement your CWP.

GJEL: Most of the discussions I’ve had about Avvo have been with other attorneys about how it can be useful to us in terms of marketing and making our profiles available for clients to find. But it’s definitely worth considering Avvo as a service to consumers, not just as a marketing tool. I know, for example, that Avvo is starting some consumer webinars. Can you explain what value those will bring to consumers, and what else Avvo has in the works to help people with their legal questions and to help them find the right attorney?

Mark: When it comes to dealing with legal issues, consumers are lost – completely lost.  The more we can give them tools – whether it be our directory, our Q&A forum, or Legal Guides forum, webinars, etc. – the better consumers will be served.  The reality is that consumers think lawyers make things hard.  The more that a lawyer can use the Avvo platform to make things easier, the more likely they are to hire that lawyer to do their legal work.

GJEL: You also advised lawyers in Seattle: “Don’t fear the negative review.”  Can you explain a little more about why negative reviews aren’t necessarily a bad thing?

Mark: The modern Web consumer – which is a much more sophisticated consumer on average – wants transparency in all products and services they are researching for purchase.  Think of how you buy goods and services.  Let’s say you are buying a new bike.  You find a site called “Superbikes” and every bike is rated “Super” and all of the client reviews are glowing.  Are you going to trust that site?  No, you are going to search for another site that speaks to you more honestly – a site that is not simply a shill for advertising.]

GJEL: What percentage of Avvo reviews are positive vs negative?

Mark: 85% positive.  That is because most lawyers do great work – they are just really bad at telling their story – i.e., marketing.  The more they can tell their story and help consumers at the same time, it is a win-win for everyone.  Thus the essence of Avvo.

I recently decided I wanted to know a little more, and I wanted to share with readers some of the insights of those very people who understand this topic the best. So this week, I’ll be sharing interviews with some really bright people. The goals are to share with potential clients ways that they can use the internet to find the attorneys that are right for them, and to help attorneys understand how to put their best foot forward online so that they are the attorneys the clients find.

So today I start our GJEL interview series with Conrad Saam of Avvo. Conrad is the head of Marketing at Avvo. Avvo is a directory of attorney profiles that clients can use to find the right attorney for them. Clients can view attorneys’ Avvo rankings, reviews from other clients and attorneys, and answers to basic legal questions to help them decide which attorney to hire. For more on Avvo, see my past post.

GJEL: Conrad, there’s no doubt that social media is a great way to network with other attorneys and reach potential clients. Here at GJEL, we have a blog, and a Twitter account, which are great ways to build relationships—but what Avvo does is different. What advantages does the profile-based directory have over other forms of social media?

Conrad: Avvo provides a comprehensive overview of the legal industry – 90% of licensed lawyers have profiles on the site.  As such, we provide consumers with breadth and depth of information that they have never been able to access before.

GJEL: I mentioned that we have a blog and a Twitter account, but of course, we’re on Avvo too. Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo gave a great presentation on maximizing Avvo Profiles at the Avvocating Conference. Of course, not everyone could attend the conference, and many attorneys I know are still discovering the things they can do with their Avvo profiles. What would your top 5 tips be for them in terms of maximizing their Avvo profiles?

Conrad: 1.       Claim your Profile!  – take control of your profile by claiming it for free.  This enables you to add as much information as you want and interact with attorneys and consumers on the site.

2.       Add a photo – profiles with photos are 10 times more likely to get clicked on.

3.       Complete your profile – make sure you fill out the profile completely – consumers are craving information and the more information you add, the more likely potential customers are to pick up the phone and call you.

4.       Keep your information current – the award you won in 1984 is less relevant to your reputation (and your Avvo Rating) than the award you won yesterday.

5.       Participate in Avvo Answers – we get 20,000 questions a month from consumers seeking basic guidance.  Avvo Answers is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and connect with prospective clients.

GJEL: There’s some concern about the fact that anyone can leave an anonymous comment on an attorney’s profile on Avvo. Is there anything an attorney can do if a defamatory comment is left on his or her profile?

Conrad: Avvo is the gold standard when it comes to high quality client reviews.  First – every review is read by a human before it is published.  Reviews that don’t meet our guidelines are rejected.  Secondly, lawyers may challenge reviews that they feel are inaccurate.  In this case, Avvo acts as a mediator between the reviewer and the attorney.  If the reviewer affirms the review, it will stay up.  Finally, attorneys can comment directly on the reviews.  All of this human interaction is very expensive, but important to ensure a quality experience for both our attorneys and prospective clients.

GJEL: I’m a bit entrepreneurial myself, so I’m curious: how did the idea for Avvo come about, and when did you know you could really make a go of it?

Conrad: Our founder, Mark Britton is a lawyer and was taking a year off teaching finance in Italy.  While overseas, he kept fielding questions from friends and family who were looking for a specific type of attorney in a specific location in the US.  It became very clear that consumers were lost when it comes to hiring an attorney – and the idea of an unbiased, easy-to-understand legal directory was born.  When did we know we could make a go of it?  There was an overwhelmingly positive response, almost a sense of relief, from people in the early focus groups who saw unbiased client reviews, objective information and an easy-to-understand rating system in the Avvo prototype.

GJEL: Finally, it seems that Avvo is enjoying booming success and is growing much faster than other online lawyer directories like Lawyers.com. What do you think is the primary reason that Avvo is surpassing all the competition?

Conrad: Avvo became the most trafficked legal directory in just two years while competing against large, established corporations with sophisticated marketing departments and massive television advertising budgets.  The simple answer is, we have the only product in the legal directory space that takes the consumer’s perspective.  We provide more information and better guidance than they have ever had access to – which helps them make important legal decisions with confidence.  An extremely positive experience with the site is our primary marketing channel.

Here’s what she had to say:

Kaitlin: This year’s Family Festival & Bike Rodeo is the 7th Annual. Why do you think this event has been so successful over the years?

Stephanie: Over the years, the faltering condition of our public health, economy and environment have been discussed in great detail, and it is clear that these conditions will get better only after we change our ways of living or thinking.  One change that tends to be highlighted is the movement to bring back biking and walking as viable means of transportation.  Looking at all the bike and pedestrian related campaigns and organizations, it is apparent that these simple and accessible solutions are catching on.  Sadly, though, the rise in bikers and pedestrians is reflected as well in the increase in number of bike and pedestrian related accidents. Fortunately, many of these accidents can be avoided or made less severe through education and outreach, and as a result, injury prevention programs are on the rise.  Ultimately, injury prevention programs serve as a tool to support the public’s interest in biking and walking, and therefore, it is the public’s enthusiasm that drives programs such as the Berkeley Family Festival and Bike Rodeo to success.

Kaitlin: I’d be interested to know how many people/families came to take advantage of the health screenings, bike safety checks, and all the other great events. How was turnout?

Stephanie: We had about 300 kids turn out.  Each child who attended was encouraged to attend 6 bike safety related events listed on their passports, and were checked before receiving their Tshirts and other various goodies.  The 6 events included:
1.      Mock City of Berkeley
2.      Boulevard Tour
3.      Obstacle Course
4.      Safety Workshop
5.      Smoothie Run
6.      Route Mapping

Kaitlin: There is a tremendous presence of cyclists in the East Bay, specifically Berkeley. Yet, it seems that so many people have been in car vs. bike accidents. What do you think of the current state of awareness/education for drivers, and how can we make driving with cyclists an easier task? What about education for cyclists in the rules of the road?

Stephanie: The East Bay is extremely fortunate to have a growing number of cyclists.  Though it seems bleak that bike and pedestrian accidents are on the rise, I remain optimistic these numbers will soon be falling.  The educational resources that exist are both comprehensive and up-to-date, and the delivery of the messages by various organizations is accessible to those who seek support. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind that the tremendous presence of cyclists and pedestrians is a relatively new phenomenon to motorists. With such a sudden rise, it is inevitable that there will be an adjustment period where all three groups will have to find a new balance.  I feel confident that as long as road safety education continues to be accessible, motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians will learn to coexist on the road.

Stephanie points out that though there has been an increase in accidents, she believes the numbers will fall soon. Hopefully she’s right. In the meantime, consider her point about the relative newness for motorists of so many cyclists and pedestrians—it may take a while for the drivers of the world to get used to all those who are moving under their own power! Be careful riding around out there, and use the resources that are in place!