The premiere of a new bicycle education video, which was scheduled for tonight, has been canceled because of the weather.

The 15-minute video, "C-U Sharing the Road," was produced locally by staff from the cities of Champaign and Urbana.

They worked with a bicycle safety consultant from the League of Illinois Bicyclists to create the video. It provides information to cyclists and drivers on how to properly deal with various traffic scenarios.

One of the main target audiences of the bicycle safety education effort is UI students.

A "sneak peek" of the video will be shown at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the north end of the UI Quad, near the Illini Union. The screening is part of Public Safety Day at the UI.

"We want to see it on the big screen, and possibly make a few small changes," said Jennifer Selby, an engineer with the city of Urbana who worked on the video.

Topics covered in the video include rules of the road, bicycling infrastructure (such as bike lanes and "sharrows," or shared lanes used by both cars and bicycles), bicycle/bus interaction and how to pass a stopped bus safely, and rules for sidewalk or shared-path riding (including not riding on sidewalks in downtown areas).

It is part of a larger effort by the cities to be more bike-friendly. They have created maps showing suggested bicycle routes and added bike lanes to some streets.

Most of the video was filmed in June. Then the script was finalized and some more shots were added later in the summer and at the start of the school year.

The cities are planning a community premiere of the final video in early October. It will then be available on each city's public access TV channel and websites as well.