Fort Collins City Council Asks for a Bike Safety Education Plan

City of Fort Collins resolution 2010-019, reproduced below, calls for City Manager Darin Atteberry to "pursue the writing" of a bicycle safety education plan.  The need for the plan has come up again and again over the past year and came to a head with the approval of the 2010-2011 FCBikes Program which was approved at Council meeting March 16th along with this resolution. 

The City's 1997 Bike Plan called for the creation of a city-wide bicycle safety education plan but the plan was never written and the 2008 plan failed to address an education plan.  Hopefully this resolution will get us back on track to create a City bike safety plan.  

RESOLUTION 2010-019

OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS

DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO PURSUE THE CONCEPT

OF A “MASTER CYCLIST” PROGRAM AND A “BIKE SAFETY TOWN”

IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIKE SAFETY EDUCATION PLAN

            WHEREAS, at the March 2, 2010 meeting of the City Council, the Council requested that the Congestion Management and Air Quality Grant (“CMAQ”) for the City’s FC Bikes Program be amended to utilize $15,000 to $20,000 for the issuance of a request for proposals (“RFP”) for the purpose of hiring a coordinator to assist with the development of the Bike Safety Education Plan, among other things; and

            WHEREAS, the proposal of engaging through an RFP process a coordinator for that purpose has met with concerns on the part of the North Front Range MPO and the Colorado Department of Transportation and would, at the least, cause delay in the City’s ability to obtain the CMAQ grant; and

            WHEREAS, the City Bicycle Advisory Committee has recommended that the CMAQ grant be executed without the proposed amendment for the issuance of an RFP but that the City Manager pursue the work suggested by the Council, as a part of a future project of the staff of the City; and

            WHEREAS, the Council has determined that the approach recommended by the Bicycle Advisory Committee is in the best interests of the City and that the City Manager should be directed accordingly.

            NOW, THEREFORE,  BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS that the City Manager is hereby directed to pursue the writing of the Bike Safety Education Plan, and in connection therewith to develop the concept of a “Master Cyclist” program and to also explore the use of annual “Building on Basics” revenues to potentially assist in the construction of a “Bike Safety Town” in one of the City’s parks and, finally, to coordinate the Bike Safety Education Plan Project closely with the Safe Routes to School program.

           

            Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Council of the City of Fort Collins this 16th day of March A.D. 2010.