Promoting cyclist safety while driving accountability is the priority of a team of passionate individuals from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and the Rob Dollar Foundation, who have partnered on a device that aims to keep everyone on the road safe.
Arizona established its three-foot rule in 2000 — a law that requires that drivers maintain at least three feet between a bicycle when passing it in the same direction until the vehicle is safely past the cyclist.
The Arizona Department of Transportation reported in its 2023 Motor Vehicle Crash Facts that bicycle fatalities are decreasing across the state, showing a 10% decrease from 49 in 2022 to 44 in 2023. It also reported bicycle injuries went from 1,133 the previous year and 1,124 in 2023, totaling a 0.44% decrease.
But, there’s still much to be desired from the cycling community when it comes to protecting cyclists on the road, even as the law approaches 25 years of being in effect and state reports showing a decline in cyclist injuries and fatalities.
University of Arizona professor Dr. Dan Latt is one of the partners on a recent project called Cycle Safe, a device similar to a dash cam that can be installed within a cyclist’s handlebars to capture photos of a vehicle when violating the three-foot rule.
“It came from an idea that I had had for a while for trying to find a way to raise awareness of and possibly enforce the Arizona statute,” Latt said.
As a lifelong cyclist and someone who has lost a loved one to a cycling incident, Latt says while Arizona created those protections for cyclists, he’s had a number of close calls where cars either intentionally or unintentionally have come very close without realizing how much danger that puts a cyclist in.
Cycle Safe started as an engineering senior design project at U of A in the 2019-20 school year, where students working on the project developed the first prototype of the device.
In 2021, Latt said that’s when he met John Dollar of the Rob Dollar Foundation, whose mission honors the memory of his son who was killed in a motor vehicle accident while riding his bike. Dollar’s work is aimed at increasing public awareness and improving cyclist safety — making him an ideal partner for the Cycle Safe initiative, according to Latt.
“It was a sort of a natural partnership that was born between their nonprofit that does outreach and public awareness and this device that had been developed,” Latt said.
The following year, the foundation sponsored a second year of development for the device along with the initial version of the software that the device uses during the 2022-23 school year.
Part of what sets Cycle Safe apart from similar safety devices is that rather than just warning a cyclist of approaching danger, it “asserts” that the cyclist has a right to be on the roadway by capturing a motorist violating the three-foot rule and reporting that data to local authorities and the foundation.
As Latt explained, it reassures that cyclists have the same right to the road as motor vehicles and that they are respected.
“We also see this as being a low-cost, low-profile device that could potentially get out on a lot of bikes, not as much of a niche product for high-end cycling,” he said.
The road ahead
After bringing in the foundation, Latt said that Dollar enlisted the help of ASU professor Robert Heinrichs to further develop Cycle Safe’s software through a master’s project that produced the second version of the software.
The Rob Dollar Foundation supports efforts that promote cyclist safety.
Courtesy Rob Dollar Foundation/Alexxis K Grant
(Courtesy Rob Dollar Foundation/Alexxis K Grant)
Dollar explained he met Heinrich through one of the foundation’s Valley events, where the pair began discussing the project and the latter expressed interest in developing the software aspect of Cycle Safe.
“Then last year… they did a project on the software side of it, and what they were working on this time was an app,” Dollar said.
The app connects to the handlebar device, which contains a small camera that captures 40 pictures of the vehicle in question.
From there, the app ASU developed identifies the best two pictures and brings them to the forefront, also noting the location and time of the incident. Users will then have the option to report the incident to local police within the app.
Dollar says they want to start reporting these incidents so actual data can be collected to show how often the three-foot rule is being violated by motorists.
“Hopefully, with this data you know, we can educate the public, we can educate the legislature (in) making some law changes, and in some severe cases, I think we’re going to be able to use it to do some type of enforcement when someone gets hit or killed,” he said.
Dollar noted that it’s difficult to enforce the three-foot rule, as there’s a lack of concrete data that could influence local authorities and representatives to take action on the issue of cyclist safety.
Enforcement is just a small part of what the Cycle Safe team hopes to achieve, according to Dollar and Latt. What they really hope to achieve is broader safety for cyclists and drivers on the road through educational efforts — even with the two universities’ rivalries.
“You know we’re all rivalries and all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, we’re all for keeping the roads safer for society,” Dollar said.
Now, ASU, U of A and the foundation are focused on the final development stages of Cycle Safe so that it can hopefully be ready to hit the market sometime within the next year.
“We’re hoping to push this device out to market through many different channels… and just get it into people’s hands so they can help save lives,” Latt said.
Reporter Caroline Yu can be reached at cyu@iniusa.org. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
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In 2021, Latt said that’s when he met John Dollar of the Rob Dollar Foundation, whose mission honors the memory of his son who was killed in a motor vehicle accident while riding his bike. Dollar’s work is aimed at increasing public awareness and improving cyclist safety — making him an ideal partner for the Cycle Safe initiative, according to Latt.
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