Bicycle Advisory Committee Seeks Two Members

The City has announced that they will fill two vacant "at large" citizen's positions on the Bicycle Advisory Committee. This committee advises Council on bicycle policies and issues through the Transportation Board.   I have been on this committee since the beginning and chaired it for two years.  I'll be quitting at the end of May since I'll be away for several months.

My view on this committee and your possible involvement is:   gather peace of mind and patience and go for it if you are inclined.  I've been quite frustrated with the unwillingness of staff to actually allow this committee to function as a citizen's advisory group.  Staff exercises very strict control over the agenda and manipulates most of the work of the committee.  Am I frustrated?  Yup.  But maybe you can be more effective. . . . 

City Seeking Residents to Fill Vacancies on Bicycle Advisory Committee

The City of Fort Collins seeks interested residents to fill two vacancies on the Bicycle Advisory Committee, which reports to the Transportation Board. Fort Collins’ excellence as a community is due in large part to citizen participation in government and community affairs. Residents can serve as volunteers on the committee which reviews bicycle plans for capital improvements and provides recommendations to the Transportation Board regarding bicycle policies, and prioritizes bicycle plan recommendations.

If you are interested in serving on the Bicycle Advisory Committee, we encourage you to fill out an application which can be found at fcgov.com/bicycling. Applications are due Thursday, May 31, 2012.

Members are appointed by the City Manager as vacancies occur, and applications will be kept on file for consideration when an opening occurs.

For more information, visit fcgov.com/bicycling or call 970-224-6112.

Bicycle Program Priorities in Fort Collins

Results for the Bicycle Priorities Survey are available at this link:     http://tinyurl.com/FoCoBikeSurvey

Survey results also allow you to click through to view an "other" comments made by respondents.

Bicycle Safety Town is Coming to Fort Collins

Since Council approval of the Bicycle Safety Education Plan last March City staff have been working on the Bike Safety Town called for in the plan.  Transportation Planner Matt Wempe heads a team that includes Craig Foreman, Parks Planner, and Dave Kemp, City Bike Coordinator.

The City's web site explains the project in detail beginning with the following:

"What if there was a place your family could practice safe cycling skills? The recently adopted Bicycle Safety Education Plan recommended the City construct a bicycle safety town to do just that. A bicycle safety town is a “miniature city,” complete with streets, bike lanes, and traffic signs. Families, adults, and children can all use the town to practice safe cycling skills as well as participate in classes hosted by the City and other community partners." (http://www.fcgov.com/transportationplanning/bikesafetytown.php)

Further documents identify safety towns in different communities across the country.  Frisco, Texas, for example has a safety town run by the fire department.  They have formal educational programs for different age groups, including:

• Kindergartners:  Introduction to 911and emergency services;
• 1st grade: Motor Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety;
• 2nd grade:  Fire Safety and Burn Prevention;
• 3rd grade:  Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety;
• 4th grade:  Severe Weather and Disaster Preparedness; and
• 5th grade:  Internet Safety and Personal Information Awareness.

Peoria, Illinois has a strictly "Bicycle Safety Town," built in the 1950s on almost four acres of land and including 4,000 linear feet of bike lanes and simulated streets.  Click here to find references to other bike safety towns on the City's web site. 

As a part of the planning for this bike safety town City staff has posted a survey online.  The purpose of the survey is to help staff  "understand how you would like to use the town and where would be a good location."   The deadline for your input is August 19, 2011.

The City's Bicycle Advisory Committee has suggested that the bike town be placed in an existing City park, centrally located with easy access by bike trail and Transfort services.  The sites being considered are about one acre in size in such parks as Rolland Moore, Edora, Beattie, and Troutman. 

Send your ideas to City staff by completing the questionaire at this link.

What Does the Transportation Board Have to Say about The BAC 2010 Work Plan?

The Bicycle Advisory Committee is, technically, a sub-committee of the Transportation Board. Both have the mission to advise City Council on transportation issues and policy. The following, extracted from the November 18 minutes of the Transportation Board, includes a T-Board discussion of the BAC work plan.

You can read the complete minutes here by clicking here.

6. BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (BAC) – David “DK” Kemp, Bill Jenkins

The BAC is a subcommittee of the Transportation Board. They bring issues the Transportation Board for forwarding to City Council.

DK shared the Bicycle Advisory Committee’s Work Plan. The Plan cmes out of the City Bike Plan. The BAC began operating in March 2009. The first thing they worked on was a Work Plan based on the major recommendations of the Bike Plan. The next step is to get into each of the five identified goals. FCBikes is dialed into the Work Plan, and is working collaboratively with the BAC.

Encouragement, Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Environment, Economy, and Community are elements of the Bike Plan.

BAC Work Plan Goals for 2010:
1. Bicycle safety.
2. Bicycling encouragement.
3. Bicycle-related economic development and affordability.
4. Bicycle facilities
5. Bicycle performance

Jenkins: Bicycle safety is the most important, and the other items feed into that. One person moved to Fort Collins because of the Bicycle-relate economic development and affordability
Miller: Has the BAC reviewed studies about automobile speeds and bicycle mortality?
DK: No, but that is a great suggestion. The Transportation Master Plan Update project is coming up, so those ideas can feed into that.
Miller: I saw some information on bicycle accident rates in the paper. I was interested in the percentage of injuries and deaths that occur in wrong way accidents versus same way accidents. It appears that the risk of an accident would be higher going the wrong way. There seem to be fewer fatalities in wrong way accidents. Have there been studies showing the actual risk? Has the City of Fort Collins looked outside itself for contest or mortality rates for the different types of projects? Statistical probability of dying in an accident is what I’m referring to.
DK: We haven’t had a great number of fatalities, fortunately.
Jenkins: We can take that back to the BAC.
Robert: We would welcome a more comprehensive perspective on bicycle safety.
Duvall: Are there rules or laws about bicycles being required to have lights/signals to be more visible?
DK: They are required to have front and rear lights and reflectors at night.
Duvall: Perhaps the rules and laws should be more strictly enforced. Drivers are frustrated by bicyclists who ignore the rules of the road.
DK: The mission is to get bicyclists to be seen, make eye contact, be safe.
Steen: Have you considered a bicycle license? We expect them to share the road and obey the traffic, but there is no licensing requirement.
DK: Traffic skills courses are being operated and educate new cyclists. We’d have to look at feasibility.
Miller: If you’re going to test and license you need to educate beginning in grade school. Today, as I was cycling south on Shields, a car turned in front of me. Had I not taken evasive action, I would have been injured or killed. The car made the error. In the case of a cyclist turning in front of the bus, the bus passengers could have been injured if the bus took evasive action.
Robert: 9th graders are now in high school and are subject to peer pressure discouraging bikes. Are we doing anything to encourage them to continue to use bikes?
DK: Yes, we’re actually getting more high school teachers asking us to come to the schools to teach bicycle safety.
Robert: The motor vehicle drivers test doesn’t have any questions on bicycles.
DK: The do now. It is one of the things that brought us up into recognition as a Bicycle Friendly State.

What is YOUR Bicycle Advisory Committee Doing?

In case you are wondering,the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) published the following "draft" work plan in their October 2009 minutes. The work plan is for 2010.
If you would like to address comments to the BAC you may do so at BAC@FCGov.com.

You may also view minutes of past meetings by clicking on this link.

DRAFT - BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE WORK PLAN 2010
The Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) is a subcommittee of the Transportation Board.
It is composed of representatives of various city boards and commissions and community
organizations that have a stake in bicycling. The BAC reviews and provides
recommendations regarding bicycle capital improvements, bicycle policies, and Bicycle
Plan priorities. The overall goal of the BAC is to promote safe, efficient bicycling in Fort
Collins and the surrounding area.
After examining the Bicycle Plan and considering needs of the various interest groups
represented, the BAC has established the following goals:

1. Bicycle Safety – Work with City departments, bicycling advocacy groups, law
enforcement agencies and other interest groups in the community to promote bicycle
safety education programs on the rules of the road and sharing the road for motorists and bicyclists of all ages.

2. Bicycling Encouragement – Continue to develop and implement innovative programs,
campaigns and events to encourage increased bicycle travel

3. Bicycle-related Economic Development – Use the existence of high quality bicycle
facilities, a robust bicycling culture, bicycle sporting events and enjoyable recreational biking to attract employers, new residents, businesses and visitors.

4. Bicycling and Household Affordability – Provide a safe, efficient bicycle infrastructure to facilitate bicycling as an affordable transportation option for low income households and non-drivers.

5. Bicycle Facilities - Identify innovative interim solutions for improving design
deficiencies and/or maintenance of important bicycle travel routes to assure a safer, more efficient bicycling environment.
6. Bicycling Performance – Establish performance measures for bicycle programs and
facilities.

Discussion:
It was suggested that the work plan as presented doesn’t really reflect the importance of how bicycling fits into many goals and policies of the City. It was felt we should go farther and tie this to overall city policies relative to environmental and community benefits.

After some discussion it was decided to add a paragraph from page 3 of the 2008 Bike Plan to put these above goals into context relative to their value to the community.
Further discussion focused on the lack of law enforcement issues in our work plan, though it was pointed out that enforcement is present in item number 1.

Kathleen Bracke & Dave Kemp suggested that they invite the Police Department to come and join us in a BAC meeting to respond to questions about law enforcement relative to bicycling.

Further discussion focused on just what type of enforcement is necessary and the choice police have to make in enforcing bicycling violations versus more serious violations of the law that have higher levels of harm.

Some suggested that education be the focus, as suggested in item one to include law enforcement. Chairman Gould suggested that the discussion was moving into the area of action items under the above major points. As we analyze the above goals we’ll eventually want to enumerate action items or activities that will come up as specific agenda items for the BAC later.

Fort Collins Police Respond to Complaints of Lack of Enforcement for Bicycle Scofflaws

One big happy family?!
The image shows CSU Corporal Scott Anthony with Chris Gaughan (Vice Chair of the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee), and Colin Pinney (Bike Co-op volunteer and former Co-op board member) on the CSU campus.


In response to a recent citizen cyclist's complaint about Fort Collins police officers not stopping and ticketing local cyclists for breaking the law City Manager Darin Atteberry shared the following response from Police Services staff member Lieutenant Szakmeister.

"Thank you for taking the time and making the effort regarding your observations on the enforcement of bicycle laws by Fort Collins Police Services. You are 100 per cent correct in that these actions by bicyclists are a violation of traffic safety law.

You ask, “Why do Fort Collins police officers treat bicyclists differently?” It is not a matter of treating individuals differently but rather enforcing laws that could have a greater impact on the public good. Just last week an officer stopped and cited two bicyclists for their bicycle violations. The officer made an observation that their actions constituted a greater danger. By the way, the officer’s sergeant received an angry phone call complaining that the police are “picking” on bicyclists.

While I may not be able to satisfy your concerns, I can tell you that police officers are entitled to exercise discretion with regard to the many traffic violations they see in the course of their duties everyday. For instance, when an officer is working a speed zone with radar, the officer many times chooses to take enforcement action when the driver exceeds ten or more miles over the speed limit. From reading your message, this may be considered dishonest or corrupt. If an officer stopped you for going over the speed limit by 1 mile per hour, he would be justified in doing so according to the letter of the law. But is it the right or ethical thing to do? I would propose to you that it would not be right or nor ethical as a general rule. Nor would it be practical.

Officers throughout their work day attempt to stop people for what they consider to be serious violations that might lead to dire consequences, similar to what Officer Deyen told you. If officers stopped everyone for every violation they see and write tickets to each violator, let alone bicyclists, it would not be reasonable or practical.

That is why the law allows officers to exercise discretion in the exercise of their duties to enforce the law. The courts have long held to this as well. It is not a matter of being dishonest or corrupt, but ethical and correct. Being sworn to uphold the law does not mean that each and every observable violation must be acted upon.

I would agree with you that if the officers are not busy taking care of other matters, officers should enforce bicycle laws as well as other laws. A discussion will take place with these officers, not as a matter of discipline, but as a reminder that citizens like you are cognizant of what’s going on out there and that there is an expectation that officers take action when possible or expedient.

Thanks again for your inquiry."

What Does City Council Have to do With a Platinum Bike Plan?

Everything. City Council sets policy in 2-4 year increments. They approve plans (like the Parks Master Plan that was just approved or the Bike Plan approved last Oct. 7, or the Bicycle Advisory Committee created by Council also last October 7th.)

Some people seem to like bike lanes, bike trails and paths, others think they are "extras," or childish, or even wasteful.

We've got several candidates running in Council districts 1, 3, and 5. We think you should support Ben Manvel in district 1 (that's Ben with the "One less car" on his shirt in the photo), Dale Lockwood in Distruct 3, and Kelly Ohlson in district 5.

Keeping incumbents, Manvel and Ohlson on Council is absolutely critical. Adding Lockwood would be a great touch to a supportive Council.

If you want a great summary about all these races, read Eric Fried's latest piece in Fort Collins Now. Pay special attention to his comments about Kelly Ohlson's opponent, Andrew Boucher: "all his columns rehashed the same points. Ready? Regulations, fees, taxes: bad! Nanny state: bad bad! Free market, Realtors, entrepreneurs: good! Open space, bicycles, transit: childish. Cars, roads, development: grown-up. Unions: bad. Poppaw, Manvel, Roy: badder. Ohlson: baddest."

Do us all a favor: Send Kelly Ohlson $25 today to help with his campaign, and vote for Kelly Ohlson, send Dale Lockwood another $25 and vote for him too. And send that last $25 contribution to Ben Manvel and vote for him if you're in District 1. Your vote, of course, depends on your Council district. But they all need your $25!

Council Member Ben Manvel Announces he Will Run for Re-election in April

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported the following announcement today:

Fort Collins City Council member Ben Manvel announced he is seeking re-election to the seat for District 1, which covers the northeast portion of the city.

In a prepared statement Wednesday, Manvel said if re-elected to a second four-year term, he would focus on the city's economic health, neighborhoods and transportation.

"In District 1, the progress made recently on North College and the River District is heartening, but difficult economic times demand that we continue to actively nurture those areas," he said.

Manvel taught mathematics at Colorado State University for 34 years before retiring in 2004. His community work includes involvement with United Way of Larimer County, Poudre Wilderness Volunteers and Foothills Unitarian Church. [End of Coloradoan report]

Manvel is shown below on the right with Parks Planner, Craig Foreman (left) and Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry (center).

Ben Manvel has been a strong supporter of bicycling in the community, is a cyclist himself and bicycles to most City Council meetings from his home in Old Town. Manvel led the effort to salvage our Bike Coordinator's positioin in 2005 and was also a leader, with colleagues Kelly Ohlson, David Roy and Lisa Poppaw, in the effort to create a city Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Fort Collins City Council Passes Bike Plan Revision, Creates Bicycle Advisory Committee

On October 7, 2008 Fort Collins City Council unanimously passed the bike plan revision and instructed the City Manager, Darin Atteberry, to create a Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) before the end of 2008.

Yesterday, Nov, 7th City Bicycle Coordinator, "DK" Dave Kemp sent out a press release announcing the creation of the BAC. Kemp also convened two public meetings November 18 and 24 to offer the public "more information" on the BAC. For details: http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bac-pr.pdf

The actual purpose of the BAC is explained in a document release by the City Bicycle Coordinator: "Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee Development Proposal" here: http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bac-dev.pdf

The good news here is that this board (a sub-committee to the Transportation Board, which considers all City transportation issues) will include representatives from 12 other city boards, commissions, and public entities, including:

- Air Quality Board
- Youth Advisory Board
- Parks & Recreation Board
- Natural Resources Advisory Board
- Senior Advisory Board
- Economic Advisory Commission (AND, curiously, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce)
- Downtown Development Authority
- Bike Fort Collins
- Bicycle Cooperative of Fort Collins, Inc. (yah, that's the Bike Co-op)
- Poudre School District
- Colorado State University
- UniverCity Connections

In addition there will be two "at-large" members "representing different geographic areas of Fort Collins. (If you live in a "different" geographic area of Fort Collins, please raise your hand.)

The Mission and Purpose of the BAC:
"The Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) would be a citizen advisory committee which reports to the Transportation Board. BAC members would have interest in or knowledge of bicycle related issues. The Committee's role will be to review all issues related to bicycling in the areas of engineering, enforcement, encouragement, environment, community and economy. The types of activities include, but are not limited to the following:

- provide group liaison between the City and the community and community groups on issues related to bicycling.
- Fostering the interchange of ideas from existing City Boards and Commissions, as well as other community stakeholders, such as Poudre School District, Colorado State University and the Downtown Development Authority and others as appropriate.
- Promote bicycling as a viable form of transportation.
- Act as a sounding board for citizens who have bicycle-related questions and concerns.
- Assist in the development and dissemination of bicycle safety awareness and education and encouragement materials to the community.
- Develop implementation strategies for recommendations in the 2008 Bike Plan.
- Assist with the development of evaluation metrics for determining success of bicycle programs and facilities.
- Review proposed capital improvement projects, street improvements, traffic signal projects, and parking facilities projects.
- Initiate requests to City staff and other appropriate agencies on issues of concern to the Committee related to bicycling.

The new, revised 2008 Bike Plan (which you can view here:
http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bike_plan-2008.pdf?20081028)
lists a host of projects that the new BAC can address. Among them, recommendations from UniverCity Connections that include turning Canyon Avenue into a "bicycle boulevard," completing east-west cross streets for cyclists in Downtown Fort Collins, and much more.

One of the first things that should be done is remove the signs shown in the photo at the head of this post.