Huntsville is asking its large bicycling community to share its stories of bad roads, near misses with vehicles and other bad riding experiences. It’s a new program called “See and Be Seen” that started in January, and it will influence road projects and police enforcement.

Leaders of organized bicycling clubs like Spring City Cycling Club are enthusiastically urging riders to report their “near misses” and close calls. "As cyclists, our concerns and many incidents involving vehicles, dogs and road hazards have gone unreported for years,” membership director Morgan Andriulli said in an email to club members. “We now have the resource and opportunity to get the information into the view of city engineers, planners and law enforcement. Get to work filling it in with your close calls and near misses.”

The city says the See and Be Seen forms aren’t for reporting criminal offenses. But they will affect roads, and police will be reading them. Cyclists making reports may be contacted by the city’s Bicycle Advisory and Safety Committee, a city employee or the police.

“I am tired of the negligence, abuse and straight up malice cyclists suffer every single day,” Andriulli said. “This is a way to raise visibility to the city so they can start doing something, anything to improve facilities and enforcement.”

Bicycling is growing in popularity in Huntsville, where bikes are used to commute and to tour neighborhoods on biking trails and country roads on evenings and weekends. Also growing in popularity is mountain biking on Monte Sano mountain and other mountains around the city.