Clear Up Confusion on Bicycling in Old Town Fort Collins

By Rick Price

First published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan May 14, 2012

Last week a passenger in a car on College Avenue shouted at me to get off the street.  When the car stopped at a red light at College and Laporte Avenue I pulled up beside it and asked the occupants if they had spoken to me.  The young male passenger said, “yeah, get the [expletive] out of the road or at least keep to the right.”  

Photo compliments of Preston Tyree.

 I explained that College Avenue was too narrow to share and that diagonally parked cars constituted a hazard for bicyclists so I needed to stay at least six feet away from them, hence in the middle of the lane.  I also mentioned that his shouting at me constituted harassment and that I was going to report the license number of the car to the Colorado State Patrol.  The driver pleaded with me not to “put this on his license.”  I explained that since he was the driver he was responsible for the behavior of his passengers.  In reality you can shout anything you want at a bicyclist in Colorado as long as you don’t throw anything.  But I made my point.

There is still plenty of confusion about where we can ride our bicycles in Old Town Fort Collins.  Maybe it is time the City and the Downtown Business Association took steps to clear this up, especially for those who work in Old Town and who are in a position to help educate others.

When I mention the dismount zone to cyclists on the sidewalk in Old Town I’ve often had reasonable people ask me if I want them to “ride on College Avenue?”  When I say “yes,” they are incredulous and explain to me that it is illegal to ride on College.  We need to bust this myth once and for all:  it is illegal to ride on College Avenue only between Harmony Road and Laurel Street.  North of Laurel it is perfectly legal to ride on College and between Magnolia and Maple Streets it is actually safe since the speed limit is 25 miles per hour and College is, for all practical purposes, a parking lot.  You are safer pedaling College Avenue here than you are bicycling across the parking lot at Foothills Fashion Mall.  Admittedly you need to practice basic principles of vehicular cycling but you can learn these at www.BikeEd.org.

The City could help this situation in two ways: 1) publish a single panel flyer to explain where and how to bicycle in Old Town; 2) pass an ordinance, similar to ordinances in Los Angeles and Independence, Missouri, where it is illegal to harass “any person riding a bicycle, walking, running, or operating a wheelchair” by shouting or otherwise directing “loud or unusual sounds toward such person.”

Yes, it would be difficult to enforce such an ordinance.  But the publicity alone would go far to make Old Town a safer place to ride a bicycle.  

Mountain Avenue Sharrows (Shared Lane Arrows) Installed in Old Town Fort Collins

City of Fort Collins Streets Department workers install sharrows on East Mountain Avenue near the corner of Mountain and Remington on May 3, 2011.  This is an innovation in Fort Collins where sharrows have been tested in the past but not installed in Old Town.  "Sharrows" or shared lane arrows are large stencils that indicate to both motorists and bicyclists that the outside lanes on Mountain Avenue from Howes Street east to Riverside Avenue are to be shared and that bicyclists should use the center of the lane.  This moves bicyclists out of the danger zone behind diagonally parked cars and into the center of the lane where they share the lane with cars single file rather than side by side.

Mulberry Pool will Stay Open if We Pass Item 2B on the Ballot Tuesday!

City Council Member David Roy sent the following e-mail to me Thursday evening, Oct. 28, 2010

This little girl just found out that Mulberry Pool will stay open IF referred item 2B to increase the Fort Collins City sales tax passes Tuesday, Nov. 2nd! 

Good evening;

There are 5 full days to go before the Fort Collins City Council election on November 2nd.  I am sending this e-mail to urge those of you who may not have made up your mind yet about supporting 2B to do so; I am sending this e-mail to urge you to do what I am doing, and send a message to folks, reminding them to vote, and to support 2B.

I have been on the Fort Collins City Council for 8 years and 3 months - it has been a privilege.  But during that time, I have been a party to cutting 24 million dollars from our budget, and having to choose to eliminate 150 positions from the City of Fort Collins organization.

As City Council gets ready to vote for the 2011 and 2012 budgets, we have in front of us another 4.5 million in cuts for 2011, and 5.1 million in cuts for 2012, and at least another 50 positions eliminated.  2B is a way to stem these cuts in services, services that add to the basic quality of life in Fort Collins. 2B supports Police, Fire, Parks, and other items that differentiate Fort Collins from so many other communities in this country.

The attachment is the soapbox I wrote in support of 2B, and the link is to the Keep Fort Collins Great! web-site.

A handful of votes could make the difference in this campaign - and those votes just might come from people you know - heck, 1 of them could be yours.

In five months, I will be off of the City Council - but Mary Jo and I are planning on living here the rest of our lives.  Please join me in supporting 2B, and in doing that something extra that moves the needle, makes success possible, and keeps Fort Collins great.

David Roy

Bike Co-op Art Show April 2, 2010

Join us at the Bike Co-op April 2, 2010 for an art show and general merriment to celebrate spring, bike art, and more!  

Old Town Fort Collins Dismount Zone

Have you seen the latest warning handout for those who violate the Old Town Dismount Zone? Probably not unless you violate the ordinance and are one of the lucky ones to get a warning from a private security officer rather than a ticket from a District One police officer. Some of us are wondering why stores and law-abiding cyclists can't have a stack of these to hand out to the scofflaws riding on the sidewalk downtown.

The image shows the business card handout front and back. Note the following FACTS:
1) It is illegal to ride your bicycle or skateboard on sidewalks downtown.
2) It is legal to bicycle on College Avenue downtown.

Note the following opinions of FCBikes:
1) Bicycling on College Ave. is recommended for experienced cyclists.
2) Always wear a helmet;
3) Ride with a light at night.

This is all great but the MESSAGE should be: DON'T RIDE ON THE SIDEWALK because there are older folks, children, and because it just makes sense to respect the Old Town Pedestrian environment.

So if you see FCBikes on the street, why not tell him that!

On Street Bike Parking in Downtown Fort Collins: The Back Story

The story that follows, from the Coloradoan, announces 5 brand new on-street bike parking racks in Old Town Fort Collins sponsored by New Belgium Brewing. This brief note brings you a few photos and a little bit of the back story of how these racks came to be. (Maybe our Bike Coordinator, Dave Kemp, will follow up with some further commentary). About 2 years ago the folks at Matter Bookstore and the Bean Cycle asked for an on-street bike corral to accommodate all the bikes in front of the Bean (bottom photo above). One business on the street objected to the loss of one automobile parking spot.

So Dave Kemp went to work and came up with five spots around Old Town for racks like the one shown in the first photo - a net gain of something like 100 parking spots since each rack holds twenty or so bikes! Nice work, Dave!

Now all we need is that on-street rack in front of the Bean Cycle!

Old Town Fort Collins adds On-Street Bike Parking

In a copyrighted story today, Trevor Hughes writes in the Coloradoan about new on-street bike parking in Old Town Fort Collins. (Although we don't like the lead sentence): "Depending on how you look at it, Old Town has either just lost five parking spaces or gained dozens more."

(Trevor, why not write: Downtown Fort Collins just got dozens of new, free parking spaces, thanks to New Belgium Brewing!)

Here's the rest of Trevor's story:

"Workers on Friday installed five permanent bright red bike racks in five downtown parking slots, blocking the slots off from vehicle use but offering dozens of new places where cyclists can lock up while patronizing downtown businesses.

The racks went up in front of Café Ardour, La Luz, the Rio Grande, Trailhead Tavern and Mugs Coffee Lounge. City bike coordinator Dave "DK" Kemp got signatures of support from business owners on each block, spending more than a year answering questions and addressing concerns.

"This makes a statement about our community," said McCabe Callahan, the owner of Mugs. "I think it's a great thing. It's encouraging more people to ride their bikes and not drive cars."

New Belgium Brewing Co. - the Fort Collins-based bike-friendly brewery - partnered with the city to create the racks. New Belgium provided the $10,000 necessary to design, build and install the racks, and the brewer's logo is featured on each. The racks,

designed by BHA Designs and built by M&R Fabricators, also resemble the city's new logo, with swooping curves topped by Horsetooth Rock.

The rack locations were chosen because the neighboring businesses see large numbers of cyclists al-ready. The existing racks outside Ardour, for example, are packed on weekend mornings; and on nice Saturday afternoons, bikes are locked to virtually every object in front of the Rio.

Kemp said moving the bike parking onto the street makes sidewalks more inviting and easier to travel, something Callahan said would help his business.

The racks also have the backing of the city's Downtown Development Authority. Executive Director Matt Robenalt said Kemp did a good job securing widespread support for the project.

"It's responding to a definite increase in bicycle traffic in downtown," Robenalt said. "Fort Collins is a cycling community. It's part of the lifestyle here."

On Friday morning, cyclist Sarah Uhl was one of the first riders to use the new rack outside La Luz. Uhl, originally from Philadelphia, said she's impressed with Fort Collins' commitment to cycling. Uhl works at New Belgium as a tour guide but said she had no idea her company was helping put in the racks.

"It made my day," she said. "It was a really wonderful surprise.""

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