Ticketing program designed to promote bike safety

By Lorenzo Gavilan Vargas Times Reporter

The Strathmore Value Drug Mart has partnered with the Town of Strathmore and the RCMP to launch a positive ticketing program designed to promote bike safety. 

Bylaw and police officers are provided with tickets to hand out to kids demonstrating bike safety, which the kids may redeem for ice cream at Value Drug Mart’s Nestle cooler.

Manager Stacie Morck says the idea came from a similar program in her hometown of Gimli, Man. 

“What I’d do is every year I’d give a whole bunch of these coupons or tickets to the bylaw and police and they would stop kids on their bikes that were practicing good bike safety,” said Morck. “It’s one bad slip and you’re in the ER with a child.”

Exercising bike safety involves things like wearing a helmet, walking your bike across the road, and paying attention to traffic and using signals when crossing the road. The program also extends to skateboarders and scooterers.

“It’s been a year and a half of everybody being cooped up. And again, it’s the new summer and everybody’s forgotten their bike safety and skateboard safety,” said Morck. “So it’s a good thing to do and just kind of bridge that relationship between the kids and the bylaw officers and the RCMP.”

Bridging the relationship is another important aspect to the program. 

“It’s bonding and nurturing the relationship between the kids in Strathmore and also the bylaw and RCMP officers,” she said. “Just because they’re pulling you over it’s not a negative thing.”

The positive ticketing program will be in place until Aug. 31, where a winner will be drawn and they will receive their own fitted bike and helmet.

“This is going to be going on until the end of the summer,” said Morck. “We’ve given them our first thousand ice cream tickets and we’re ordering another thousand. The RCMP are now becoming involved as well, which I think is fantastic.”