Posted on 06/15/2010 6:49:48 AM PDT by MissTed
Jamie Webb thought maybe she was speeding when a police cruiser pulled her and three friends over as they rode their bikes into Black Hawk from Central City.
Actually, the crime was pedaling. She was violating Black Hawk's ban on bicycling through town — the only such ban in Colorado.
"They said we had to walk through town. I think this sets a pretty bad precedent," Webb said. "There's really no reason for it."
Webb was the first cyclist ticketed under Black Hawk's new rule, which prohibits bike riding on nearly every street in town, including the only paved thoroughfare in Black Hawk.
City Manager Mike Copp said the reason for the rule, enacted in January, is safety.
The roads in Black Hawk are narrow and do not have shoulders. They teem with tour buses and delivery trucks that feed the bustling casinos. Demanding that those trucks provide 3 feet of space when passing cyclists — as required by a 2009 Colorado law — means trucks and buses must move into oncoming traffic, Copp said.
"We saw the conflicts going on with buses and with trucks, and we decided to be proactive on this," Copp said, noting that no accidents prodded the ban. "We don't want to be the city that knows we need a traffic light but waited until someone gets killed. This is what our city believes is best for its citizens, its businesses and its guests."
But Webb said she has often ridden on shoulderless canyon roads and has had no trouble with trucks.
"To say we all can't fit on the road together is ridiculous," she said. "We are all moving so slow through Black Hawk anyway, it's not like anyone is passing anyone."
After a period of issuing warnings, police this month began citing cyclists. To date, the town has issued eight $68 tickets.
Cyclists using the road to connect to the popular ride along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway from Black Hawk to Estes Park are decrying the ban, which forces them to walk their bikes a half-mile through town. Another option is to ride over Berthoud Pass — but that excludes most of the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway.
"This is unbelievable. We are going to do as much as we can to fight this," said Rick Melick, spokesman for the 380-member Rocky Mountain Cycling Club. "Now that cyclists have almost the same rules as motorists, the idea a small town can ban bikes is ludicrous."
Since news of ticketing began trickling into the cycling community, opposition is forming. A Facebook page called "Bicyclists and Tourists Boycott Black Hawk Colorado" launched last week. The website dismountblackhawk.com is peddling shirts protesting the ban. Bicycle Colorado, a nonprofit dedicated to all things cycling in Colorado, is fomenting a grassroots push to get Black Hawk to overturn the ban.
"They are singling out one classification of vehicle," said Charlie Henderson, president of the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club. "I wonder if motorcycles will be next."
Black Hawk officials expected the uproar. And they are not going to revisit the rules, Copp said.
"Our council looks at what they think is best for its citizens, for its businesses, which in this case are casinos, and its visitors, which are patrons that come to visit the casinos," Copp said. "We have had positive feedback from citizens, casinos and our guests."
Bike traffic and motor traffic are not the same thing because of any number of obvious reasons, like the great differences in speed, vulnerability, and survivability in an accident, and licensing/insurance requirements.
It seems that there is a legitimate safety issue involved with bike traffic on this particular stretch of road, and local authorities would be negligent to not address it. The fact that these inherent differences in traffic characteristics are creating conflicts between cyclists and motorists is reason enough for the town to take action.
Widening the roads to establish dedicated bike lanes is one answer, but that is a tax burden the local people shouldn't have to bear to support the hobbies of people passing through town.
Until that issue is resolved, I don't see any easy answer to this question short of a tax on bikes to pay for the additional resources they require, combined with rigorous local enforcement of safety laws to ensure that bicycle traffic does not impede motor traffic (similar to boating regulations that large craft have the right-of-way over small pleasure craft).
>> their activities impinge on the rights of others to use the roads in the manner for which they were designed.
Roadways were designed with bicycle use in mind. Every state allows bicycles on most public roads.
Is it your informed libertarian position that because sharing the road with a bicycle that has every legal right to be there is an inconvenience to YOU, then the bicyclist’s liberties should be curtailed? Please explain.
Bicyclists mostly arrogant elitist....
Yeah that’s why we have the BRAN rides for charity, going across the state of Nebraska. Have a different ride coming up also that is for getting clean drinking water for countries that do not have...
Isn’t it fun to lump everyone you dislike into one camp so you can make ignorant statements.
Biking is like everything else. There are those that are stupid and there are those that are sensible. It is kind of silly to paint with such a broad brush.
When the infrastructure was being established no room was left for the old way as each new way took over the task of moving the most goods and people quicker.
Bicyles on the road are like the $2 bill and $1 coin -there just isn't a place to put them in the established commerce.
There are a reasonable number of roads around here that have bike lanes, but the bicyclists seem to avoid those roads, and frequently avoid the bike lanes as well. When they're in a group, they don't run on the bike lanes single file, but spread out into the traffic lanes as well.
So THAT explains all the spandex.
Give up on your statist mentality and note that you also know nothing about my wardrobe. Given that ~ 50% of Americans support the other half, trying to extract a gov't theft from bicycles in addition to all the other theft perp'd by gov't is a losing proposition.
why can’t the town build a bike trail through it.......so they can avoid the narrow roads with the trucks.
My point wsa not all bicyclists are as you describe. However you can justify your attitude any way you want. And for the record there ain’t no way I would ever look like a Lance Armstrong.
BTW, where’s your license and tax receipts for walking on the sidewalk, comrade? Papers Please!
>> This debate is ended, you lost.
Well, that’s certainly the *easiest* way to “win” a debate, if not the most convincing.
Wrong. Please lay out the incremental costs of riding a bicycle on public roads. Include road damage, space usage, Locality tax revenue loss from tickets, etc.
It happens to all of us brother. I once argued that a .40sw was more powerful than a .357 because I misunderstood something I’d read. Embarrassing is the operative word for that one.
A little sensitive today are you? Btw, you did not win that exchange no matter how emphatically you declare that you did.
It’s called SALES TAX, County Tax, City Tax, and property tax...or don’t you pay those either?
So, you do drive automatics? How helpless.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.