Bike Co-op to Hold Bike Town Meeting to Wrap up Community Listening Sessions

When: Wednesday, May 5 from 7 – 9 p.m.
Where: New Belgium Brewing, 500 Linden St. Fort Collins

In order to provide input into the Plan Fort Collins process the Bike Co-op has completed a series of eight community “listening sessions.” About fifty citizens, including cyclists, hikers/pedestrians and motorists came out to express their concerns and visions for a better bicycling community.

Among the concerns expressed for the near-term was a desire for better connections in the existing trail and bike lane system and more and better educational outreach to cyclists in order to reduce conflicts with other users, especially on sidewalks and trails in parks and natural areas.

For the long term the wish list includes increasing the numbers of over- and under-passes along trails like the Mason Trail and the Powerline Trail, including over or under Harmony Road. It was pointed out that grade separated crossings benefit both cyclists and motorists as it eliminates wait times at street crossings for both.

A consistent theme at several of the meetings was the idea of reducing speed limits throughout the City to 35 miles per hour or less. The point was made that if we really want to encourage biking and walking, speed limits should be reduced.

Other ideas brought forward include the concept of “bicycle boulevards” that give cyclists preference to use some neighborhood streets as thoroughfares. Streets nominated for such use included Swallow, Columbia, Stover, Canyon, Oak and Loomis. Bicycle Boulevards encourage cyclists to use through neighborhood streets while motorists might be discouraged through the use of traffic calming devices, signage, and other traffic control features. Stop lights, for example, might default to green for through cyclists while requiring motor vehicles to trigger lights through actuation devices, the opposite of how most City intersections now operate.

A community bike town meeting will be held Wednesday, May 5 from 7 – 9 p.m. at New Belgium Brewing to finalize citizens’ input from these listening sessions. Everyone is encouraged to attend, whether you ride a bicycle, drive a car, or limit your movements to walking. The goal of the meeting will be to review all the suggestions presented and vote on priority actions for the short and long term. A similar bike town meeting was held in November 2007 and resulted in the placement of 35 “share the road” signs throughout the community. Organizers of this meeting hope that new innovative ideas will emerge to present to City planners and to City Council through the City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and the Transportation Board.

For information about the meeting call 310-5238. Or visit the Bike Co-op web site.

Fort Collins Needs a Few Scramble Crossings

If you have ever watched students rushing to class at Elizabeth and Shields or Laurel and College you've seen that those intersections might benefit from scramble crossings. They would be most beneficial for bicycles but pedestrians would use them as well. In a scramble crossing (also called a diagonal crossing or crosswalk) motor traffic from all directions stops at once and pedestrians and bikes can cross any of four crosswalks or diagonally in the middle of the intersection. Next time you are at College and Laurel or Elizabeth and Shields before classes stop and watch. Imagine a scene like the one shown in the video here.

And then think about a diagonal bike and pedestrian crossing like the one shown here.

Shared Lanes: Sharrows are a Great Educational/Engineering Tool to Promote Sharing the Road

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Fort Collins transportation planners conducted an experiment in February of 2006 along Laurel Street near College. Never mind that the "sharrow" ("shared lane arrow") shown here is placed incorrectly and quickly dissipated in the grit and snow, the symbol communicates clearly to cyclists and motorists exactly where cyclists can be expected to ride in the travel lane. This particular series of sharrows was west of College Ave. on Laurel where the street is too narrow (because of on-street parking) for a bike lane. Here bikes should ride in the center of the travel lane.



"Share the lane signs" went up on College Avenue in Old Town Fort Collins in September. The signs (a total of eight signs both north and south-bound, between Laurel and Cherry Streets) were placed along College as a part of the new campaign to discourage cyclists on the sidewalks in Old Town. Signs such as the one below communicate clearly to cyclists and motorists alike that bicycles are both allowed and encouraged on College Aveune in this part of town.

"Conference Bike" Offers Unique Experience

So our "non-book" group gets together once a month to talk about books we haven't read, politics, the state of the nation and world, health care reform, transportation policy, hand built guitars, beads and necklace making, and everything else that comes down the pike. Since this is a bike town and there are six of us and the Conference Bike offered for hire by Septacycles accommodates six plus a driver, we decided on an August evening on the town by bike.

We recommend it highly. We hired both bike and driver since our idea was to make the rounds to some of the bicycle bars in town just for the experience. Indeed, it was an ExperiencePlus! We started at the Bike Co-op on Laporte Avenune and pedaled down Howes, then Laurel to Road 34 on West Elizabeth. We were greeted with cheers and cameras! From there we headed to campus, around the oval and then back to Laurel and College. We "took the lane" and headed down College Avenue to Old Town Square where we took a break for pizza and drinks at Coopersmiths. We completed the evening by returning to the Bike Co-op.

So what did we learn: The Conference Bike has no gears. So you can only go so fast (and good luck to the folks who try riding up to Horsetooth Reservoir). We could cruise at about 10 MPH and we found that it took only three of us pedaling at a time to move it along nicely. So we counted off - 1,2 - 1,2 - and the commander called for the ones to pedal while the twos rested, and so it goes. Would we do it again? In a minute! (And you should too!) Contact Septacycles here.

So I can't ride on College Avenue, right?