An Ille­gal Bike Ban — And the Fight Against It | Bicy­cling Magazine

Bob Mionske (my favorite cycling advo­cacy author) writes another excel­lent arti­cle. He lays the ground-work for his arti­cle by stat­ing a few facts. Motor vehi­cles are the cause the major­ity of deaths in acci­dents. (Can this pos­si­bly be refuted? Some will try.) In fact, motor vehi­cle oper­a­tors account for 43,000 deaths each year in the U.S. in spite of our strict licens­ing require­ments (to prove com­pe­tency behind the wheel) and regulations. Cyclists, on the other hand, cause so few deaths while rid­ing, that sta­tis­ti­cally speak­ing, they are respon­si­ble for 0% of the 43,000.

Also, the licens­ing of dri­vers does not give them the right to the road: it gives them the priv­i­lege. One that can be taken away by the revo­ca­tion of the license. Cyclists and pedes­tri­ans, on the other hand, have an innate right to travel: they are not licensed. This right to travel can­not be taken away.

In spite of this, Black Hawk, Col­orado, home to sev­eral casi­nos, voted to ban bicy­cles from the roads in its city lim­its. Accord­ing to City Man­ager, Mike Copp, they banned bikes for safety rea­sons, even though there have been no inci­dents between cyclists and dri­vers in Black Hawk. The city’s argu­ment was this: the streets are nar­row, there is alot of motor vehi­cle traf­fic, and there’s really not room for cyclists. So for their own safety, the city decided to not allow them to ride there.

So, Mionske asks,

If safety was the goal, one might ask if it doesn’t make more sense to “pro­mote safety” by ban­ning motor vehi­cles? After all, they are the source of the prob­lem. But of course, casino patrons arrive by motor vehi­cle, and casi­nos have kept the city alive, so ban­ning motor vehi­cles wouldn’t do. But what about address­ing infra­struc­ture prob­lems? What about requir­ing motorists to share road space with cyclists? What about requir­ing motorists to safely oper­ate their vehi­cles while shar­ing the roads?

Mionske con­tin­ues fur­ther with his arti­cle, detail­ing how Black Hawk is flout­ing state law, and upcom­ing efforts to curb it, so def­i­nitely read the whole article.

Related arti­cles by Zemanta

• Col­orado vil­lage of 100 peo­ple bans bikes (americablog.com)
• Kill the bicy­cle ban before it grows… (bjsmith.wordpress.com)
• Bicy­cles Banned in Black Hawk (thedenverchannel.com)

© 2010, Mark. All rights reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Glen­dale Trying
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3. Bicy­cling & the Law, Pt. 2
4. Per­sonal Safety on the Bike Path
5. Ban Motorists From the Road