Blackhawk Colorado bans bikes on most city streets

[steve]

"The idea behind it as you can see when cars come by, there's really not a lot of room for bikes," Mike Copp, city manager for Black Hawk, said.

In January, the city council passed an ordinance banning bikes on most of the town's streets, especially the main thoroughfares. Copp says with all the busses, trucks and cars already trying to crowd the historic town's narrow streets, the addition of bikes is a hazard.

"This city council is looking out for the best interest of its citizens, its businesses, which are the casinos and its visitors who is the gamer," Copp said.

Some bike enthusiasts believe the law is unfair. Police are ticketing cyclists riding through town giving them citations that carry a $68 fine.

"It's a public road. It should be open to all the uses allowable for roads," said Dan Grunig, executive director of Bicycle Colorado.

9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | Gambling town bans bikes

 

[cyberlegend1994]

That's quite a slap in the face since CO is reportedly a very bike-friendly state.

 

[64Paramount]

That's quite a slap in the face since CO is reportedly a very bike-friendly state.

No kidding, that's really a big step backwards!

 

[frenchyge]

I thought bikes were the solution to congested city streets, rather than being the cause. Apparently the historic streets of Blackhawk, CO are too crowded for bikes, but there's still plenty of room for all the cars, trucks, and buses that people want to cram in there?? Talk about bass-ackward.

We have a town nearby who's solution to horrible road maintenance and unsafe conditions was also to ban bikes. They don't benefit from bus loads of senior citizens streaming into casinos in their town, however, so they've just suffered from stunted development as the result of their short-sightedness in not addressing the root cause of their "road safety" issue. Feel free to scratch DeSoto, KS from your list of travel destinations on your next visit to Kansas City.

 

[byronlewis]

Freedom of travel is a assured, correct. Their law forbidding bikes is probably illegal in itself and would be shot down by the judge. People of Colorado better contact their governor about this immediately.