In which I explore a train of thought that makes me sound profoundly anti-Mountain Bike
Colorado Senate Bill 36 was written to acknowledge the inherent risks of mountain biking, and to limit lawsuits against property owners, equipment renters, etc. over injuries sustained during the activity.
The bill died tonight, having never made it out of committee.
What I find interesting about this bill is that it was a wholly Republican endeavor from start to finish. [1] It was sponsored by a Republican, and the vote on it was strictly down party lines: Republicans for, Democrats against.
This speaks to a suspicion that I have long had. Mountain biking is largely a Republican activity, because Republicans insist on seeing bikes as toys.
One blogger recently wrote about how in her community bikes were considered suitable for kids to play with, but were completely inappropriate for an adult to ride.
There's some kind of mental trigger that produces this mindset, and I don't know what it is. But I think that whatever it is, it's the same thing that causes motorists to get angry at cyclists for being in the road. The other side of the "They think they're entitled to the road" coin has to be "I believe they have no entitlement," which means that to the coin flipper, the cyclist is a kid playing at grown-up games and should be riding bikes on the sidewalk. Or playing hop-scotch in the alley. Or kicking a tin can in a dirt field. The idea that a bike might be used for grown-up reasons—going to work, grocery shopping—is not reasonable, nor even plausible, to this person.
(This coin-flipper is the same person who honked at me twice this week for not riding in the bike lane when it was full of snow and slush and ice and muck.)
To this person, the idea of spending Department Of Transportation money in multi-modal transportation is ridiculous. Because bikes are toys, and who walks anywhere?
"Bikes are toys" is the mantra that allows anti-bike people to embrace mountain biking. In this activity, bikes are safely confined to recreational use far away from cities and roads and traffic.
As proof, I submit the most—the only?—outspokenly anti-bike politician in Colorado, or anywhere else, Dan Maes.
The bike program in and of itself is fine. I'm a biker, I rode the seat off my mountain bike last year myself.
So. Cycling in the city is a UN conspiracy to rob us of our freedoms. But cycling outside the city, in the mountains and in the woods, is peachy-keen and supports family values.
I am not against mountain biking. I find the idea of it appealing. I am simply interested in the apparent mental break that exists in people who are for it, but who are against cycling in the city and who are against infrastructure that supports it.
Because in one case, cyclists are simply kids playing with toys. And in the other, cyclists are humans, people who are just living their lives, doing their jobs, trying to live simply, and to simply live. [1] One caveat from bicyclecolorado.org
This bill was conceived by past Senator Chris Romer after encountering many liability obstacles in trying to host a mountain bike event.
Romer is a Democrat currently running for Mayor of Denver and who appears to be very fond of the cycling demographic.
So I had just arrived downtown to meet up with my partner for lunch on the 16th Street Mall. Right away I began noticing people scurrying about in matching green t-shirts that identified them as participants in the Denver Diamond Dash, which I assumed to be yet another urban race/scavenger hunt of some sort. Denver's had a ton of them this summer for some reason and they're usually super good fun.
This one was different though because the participants were on wheels. A few were on rollerblades but the vast majority were on bicycles.
And they were driving like idiots. All of them. Like idiots.
During the lunch I enjoyed outside on the patio of Noodles & Co, and during my rides to and from downtown, I saw probably fifty couples. Here are some of the behaviors they displayed!
Riding on the sidewalk. And not just toodling along like you see some people doing. This event is a race, and they were riding like it, whizzing and careening through the mobs of pedestrians that teem through the mall on a Sunday afternoon.
Please note that riding on the sidewalk is illegal. In fact, it is printed in big letters on the very B-Cycles that were flying down the sidewalk. Do not ride on the sidewalk.
Uber-salmoning. Riding in the street (yay) but against traffic on a one-way street (boo!).
Texting. I passed a girl who was texting on her blackberry while precariously wobbling her bike down the sidewalk. I was able to see her for 5 - 8 seconds and she didn't once lift her eyes away from her device.
Riding on the 16th Street Mall. Granted, it is Sunday, which is arbitrarily the day that one is permitted to ride on the mall. But many of the participants are likely not aware of the distinction or of the rule in the first place.
No helmets. Not one helmet. Not a single helmet. You don't have to wear a helmet, I know, and sometimes I don't. But I'm an educated, confident cyclist. These bozos were begging for a crash, and not one of them was wearing a helmet.
In the interest of total honesty, I did see two people who were following all of the rules of the road. Thank you, those two people.
Now, as we all know, this summer has been widely reported to be the Summer Of Crack Down, during which the police will be ticketing and citing cyclists for all manner of infractions. So I decided to call DPD to see if they had yet handed out any tickets. (Actually, I called DPD because I wanted to complain about the recklessness to somebody and I didn't see a phone number on the Diamond Dash website.)
I called the non-emergency number because, as far as I knew, none of the mad dashers had yet caused any traffic incidents.
The dispatcher didn't really understand what my complaint was, but transferred me to an officer anyway. The officer told me that riding on the sidewalk is allowed during an event.
This left me flabbergasted.
If the event were one during which the sidewalks are closed to pedestrian traffic, then that would reasonable. But that was not the case today. This is a law that exists for obvious safety reasons, and in breaking it the participants of this event were creating obvious safety hazards.
On my way home, I saw two pedestrians tapping along with white safety canes, and I hoped fervently that they make it safely to where ever they were going. Because they certainly aren't going to get any assistance or support from the police department. Not even during the Summer Of Crack Down.
Because there's an event.
Safety issues aside, they were all just so damn visible. There were so many of them, and they were driving so badly, providing so much support for the notion that cyclists are at best inconsiderate goofballs and are at worst reckless scofflaws. Anybody looking for confirmation of that belief had all the support in the world downtown today.
And that's not fair. I'm a careful, considerate, conscientious cyclist. But anybody who encounters me on the road today after driving through downtown this afternoon is likely to identify me as a dangerous idiot.
So I was at the 16th Street Mall on Sunday, meandering about and engaging in some commerce, when I saw this nice orange cruiser up ahead. I proceeded to ogle it.
I then noticed a bright green paper zip-tied to the handlebar and, curious, went in for a closer look.
Please do not park on the 16th Street Mall
There are over 600 designated bicycle parking racks throughout Downtown, including at each intersection of the Mall. Parking your bicycle at locations such as street lights, trees, railings or other furnishings on the 16th Street Mall is prohibited*, can cause property damage and may limit pedestrian access on this pedestrian-transit street.
Please be aware that bicycles parked along the 16th Street Mall that impede pedestrian or shuttle traffic may be impounded by Denver Police.
Please contact the Downtown Denver Partnership with any questions about bicycling in Downtown Denver at 303.534.6161
* Section 54-575 RMC
I continued to see these notices attached to bikes all along the mall. I had neither seen nor heard of such things before, so I promptly asked the Internet what it was all about. I promptly got a few replies.
The referenced section of the Revised Municipal Code says you can park on the sidewalk in a rack "as to not impede the normal and reasonable movement of pedestrian or other traffic." It doesn't seem to say anywhere that you can't park next to signs or posts, but that definitely appears to be how it's being interpreted here.
The 16th Street Mall must be the most bike restrictive place in Denver. You cannot ride there, but you can on Sundays, but you can never park there.
The city of Black Hawk, Colorado has banned bicycles from most of its streets. You can read the press release and the actual legislation here. (via cityofblackhawk.org, which uses an annoying flash navigation menu).
I submitted the following email using language from Bicycle Colorado's response.
to: CityClerk@cityofblackhawk.org date: Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 11:48 AM subject: Please restore bicycle access to Black Hawk
To: Mayor David D. Spellman and Aldermen Linda Armbright, Paul G. Bennett, Diane Cales, Kathleen Doles, Tom Kerr, Greg Moates
Please restore full bicycle access to the city of Black Hawk.
Your ban prevents residents from commuting and shopping by bicycle, and from having the choice to live car-free. Your ban closes a major cross-state route by denying bicyclists access to Gregory Street/State Highway 279, the only paved street connecting the Peak to Peak Highway with the Central City Parkway.
The reason for the ban is unclear because, although City Manager Mike Copp said the ban was put in place "to promote safety," neither he nor Police Chief Cole were able to cite any bicycle fatalities or bicycle/automobile collisions preceding the ban.
And the ban was made, according to City Manager Copp, without any input from bicyclists or bicycle organizations, despite Bicycle Colorado's Dan Grunig's request that the ban be reconsidered so that the bicycle community may have an opportunity to provide input.
Bikinginla offered this blurb, with informative links, on the matter:
Cyclelicious offers a couple of great looks at the Blackhawk, Colorado bike ban, which was supposedly done for safety reasons — even though there were no cyclist or pedestrian deaths in the entire county in the last four years for which records are available.
Here is the text from the back of the Bikedenver.org "Ride Safe" spoke cards, or what I now think of as the Big Four.
If you bike in Denver: Drive your bike like you drive your car!
Obey stop signs, traffic signs & stop lights Set an example for everyone and wait in line for a green light! Bikes and cars -- same rights, same laws.
Take your place in traffic Ride your bike on the street; sidewalks are reserved for pedestrians
Always ride with traffic When you're on a bicycle, you ARE traffic. Ride on the right; it's predictable and safer for everyone.
Bicycle riding is prohibited on the 16th Street Mall Except on Sundays, when RTD lanes are open to bicyclists.
The first three are pretty universal. The fourth is obviously a concern only very locally. Not even everybody in Denver will ever try to ride on the Mall.
Judging from this list, one has to assume that riding on the 16th Street Mall is the fourth most often ticketed bike traffic infraction. Otherwise why include it on this list?
