Video Colorado 3 Foot Law; Blackhawk Supreme Court update
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1t9Z...layer_embedded

The Blackhawk, CO ordinance banning through bicycle traffic will be going to the state Supreme Court for oral arguments on November 8. The briefings, etc., are available at

www.bicyclecolorado.org

Specifically

http://bicyclecolo.org/articles/blac...ban-pg1118.htm

Interesting!

Seriously? You can't ride a bicycle anywhere in town? Even kids going down to a convenience store? If this was a motorcycle ban around here there would be 2,000 bikes on Main St. next weekend.

FWIW CT has a "3-ft law" as well. I don't know how many motorists know it and I'm pretty sure it's never been enforced but generally motorists are considerate here. There is the occasional idiot of course but it's not common.

OMG! Who runs this town, the gas station owners!?! It seems a silly and stupid ban.


BTW, I embedded the video for you here in my post.

The casinos run it.

So what are the bike clubs doing about it? Is there a planned show up of concerned citizens?

No one should be able to push a baby stroller on a sidewalk because we all know those are lethal instruments! Cats and dogs ought to be banned because they occasionally run out in front of cars! Kids should be banned from playing with a ball in their front yards because the ball sometimes rolls into the street in front of our cars! Senior citizens ought to be banned from walking outside because they make us wait too long while they cross the street! All motorcycles ought to banned because everyone who rides a motorcycle is an ex-con!

Laughable! Utterly laughable!!

There are no records of bicycle/motor-vehicle collisions in the town, and the speed limits are 15mph. As for the former fact, the town officials are claiming to be "pro-active" in banning something that has never been a problem. As for the latter fact, the fools claim "we can't have 10mph bicycles holding up 15mph traffic". Ugh...who rides at 10mph?:twitchy:

Black Hawk and Central City were cute little towns before the casinos moved in. Now they are just ****holes to be avoided. I have no problem with legalizing gambling. The problem comes from legalizing it only in remote areas. If it was legalized statewide, the casinos would be built in the large population areas, instead of screwing up remote little mountain towns.

They really aren't concerned about bicycles. They just don't want a hordes of spandex clad cyclists b'ichily prancing around downtown. I was on a bike tour through that part of CO last year and we detoured over ~10 miles of dirt roads to get around Blackhawk.

Surprised to hear from so many cyclists who weren't already aware of the Blackhawk bike ban story.

Literally - there are about 100 residents and they are all casino related. The town council is all casino owners, etc.

I am going to try to attach a couple of links which may be of interest.

http://keystoliberty2.wordpress.com/...ght-to-travel/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7547786/Wr...ight-to-Travel

I am not a lawyer and I would not want to test the above links in court although one of my friends used these in defense of not having a drivers license and was found not guilty. My friend is 92 years old so the judge may have just decided not to find him guilty.

It appears that we have the right to use the roads for travel but not for business. When we sign a license we may be signing a contract and then we are held to the rules of the contract even though we don't know that we are signing a contract.

This has been going on for a very long time. It seems the wheels of justice take a lot longer than I thought.

Hmmm, can the site you if you walk the bicycle through the town?

Under the current law they would not cite you for walking your bike. However, if the Co Supreme Court upholds their right to make laws like this (it has already been upheld twice in court) then I guess they could pass a law against just about anything, as long as it did not violate the US or the CO constitution.

The state bicycle organizations are fighting it in court, where it needs to be fought.

So much for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Plus you would think with the amount of obesity that there is in this nation cycling would be the one thing they would want to promote.

BTW Colorado needs a law banning casinos in towns that are not Native American owned!
Decades ago we fought odrinace/law in Michigan that banned bicycles off the sidewalks and also off the road!
We won!

You don't quite get the picture. This is a tiny town literally owned and run by casino owners who care about one thing - $$$.

It just happens that the town has a main road running through it that people need to ride on to get places. The more obese folks sitting around in their casinos, the happier they will be.

They don't want fit bicyclists anywhere around.

Bicycles don't play Blackjack, Poker, or the Slots. Just Craps when it comes to gambling.

How many times do we say Crap when some joker pulls out in front of us?

I need to go for a ride.

dnvrfox

Thanks for posting that information. I had been wondering where the Blackhawk situation was.

Back in the middle 70s we lived in Boulder for a year. My wife and I liked to stop at Central City and Blackhawk when we drove thru the mountains there. My wife especially liked the little shops and the atmosphere of those small towns.

While visiting Co several years ago we thot we would stop there again. The gamblers completely took over the towns, and as someone else stated they are now just ****holes!!! You cant even park if you dont pay.

I certainly hope the Co Supreme Court applies the state laws and rules against the gamblers. If for no other reason than it will cause other towns to ban cyclist.

The fundamental problem with a utilitarian approach to society is that it can't account for justice or individual rights. It will be interesting to see how they rule.

Are Federal funds involved in the maint/construction of the road? There are usually some basic requirements regarding accessibility, depending on the pocket of money used...