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Photo by David Boerner
A new bicycle surcharge passed the Fort Collins City Council in January, adding an additional $35 fine to moving violation tickets issued to cyclists in Fort Collins. This is an extension of the so-called “traffic calming” surcharge that has been in effect for drivers since 2005 and has since generated $320,000 annually, paying for three dedicated traffic enforcement officers. Lt. Jim Szakmeister of Fort Collins Police Services said the bike surcharge is expected to bring in $7,000 more in revenues (200 tickets). Sure, $7,000 might buy a bike or two, but it certainly won’t pay for a dedicated bike traffic officer. So why bother? Are bicyclist’s 200 cited infractions really that big of a deal for Fort Collins?
Ryan Clark doesn’t think so. The 30-year-old unwittingly became one of the first recipients of the new surcharge. Clark - a tall, lanky guy who looks to be in very good shape - commutes by bike from his house near the intersection of Stover and Drake to his work, Gulley’s Greenhouse at the southern edge of town on Shields. The ride takes him about twenty minutes, depending on traffic. It’s not a bad commute, thanks to the Mason Trail and bike lanes on Harmony and Shields, but first Clark must face the intersection of Drake and College – an intersection clearly not designed for cyclists.
There are no bike lanes on Drake, on either side of College, so every morning Clark implements one of two strategies. If he can get into the intersection ahead of the drivers, he can sprint the first block of West Drake, move to the left lane in front of the bearing-down cars behind, and turn left onto the safety of the Mason trail – all before the opposing Eastbound traffic gets their light to proceed. If he can’t, he has to ride all-the-way to the right, getting squeezed into the sidewalk by drivers in the right lane, get onto the sidewalk, press the crosswalk button and wait for the light to stop traffic a minute later before he can cross Drake onto the southbound Mason Trail.
On January 18th, Clark went for the faster and considerably safer option.
“I was waiting on Drake in the right lane. [The opposing Eastbound traffic] got the green light with the green arrow. They all went through and I was still waiting for my green. I knew that my light was about to turn green. I ride this every day. So I jumped the red to get out ahead of the cars. I was maybe 15, not more than twenty feet into the intersection before [my light] turned green, riding fast to get to Mason. And then breep breep - those damn sirens behind me.”
Ryan was issued a $100 ticket for running a red light plus the new $35 surcharge.
“Paying $135 for a first offense, on a bike – that’s monumental for me,” Clark said.
“It’s like: I get the point. I follow the law by the letter when it makes sense, and now I know not to run that light. But this idea that bikers should follow the same laws as the cars, it’s the worst misconception.”
Bicycle advocates generally fall on one of two sides: “vehicularists” and “facilitators.” Vehicalarists generally believe that bicyclists should be treated the same as drivers, should observe the same rules, should have the same rights, and should ride on the same roads. Facilitators tend to advocate for separate infrastructure for cyclists, and separate traffic laws in some cases. (See “Stop means stop: How do we get bikers to obey traffic laws?”)
Clark and many others (myself included) ride a bike for freedom, frugality, and environmental ideals. And we like the bicycle’s status in the legal grey area of “yeah, you’re supposed to follow the same laws as drivers, but we make plenty of exceptions.”
The destructive capacity of a car is many times higher than a bike’s. The top speed of a car is many times higher. The visibility in a car is much worse.
The current U.S. roadway system and its rules were designed the way they are because of these truths about cars. If there were no cars, our roadways wouldn’t be set up this way. So why should bicyclists abide by a system that isn’t designed for them?
Photo by Molly O'Connell
Even under Idaho’s Code, what Clark did might have been considered illegal, but being in the grey area might have gotten him a warning and saved him $135.
“I can’t stress this enough: I know what I’m doing on a bike,” Clark said. “I know that a mistake hurts me – not the car. I’m not trying to be crazy. What I did was safe.”
Lt. Szakmeister conceived of the ordinance.
“I wrote [the ordinance], followed the channels, and it was presented to the council on the consent agenda.” Szakmeister said.
Since it was on the consent agenda, the bike surcharge wasn’t discussed by the city council. They just passed it.
Rick Price, a League of American Bicyclists Instructor and a Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee member, was a little miffed by the bike surcharge’s breezy passage.
“They didn’t advise the bicycle advisory committee,” Price said. “I don’t have any objection about a $35 surcharge, but I want to know what the goal is.”
“What finally motivated the cops?” Price said. “ What was the decision-making process? And why now?”
Councilman Ben Manvel didn’t know where the bike surcharge came from.
“I think the bicycle community itself recommended this,” Manvel said, though he couldn’t get any more specific than that.
Lt. Szakmeister, who wrote the ordinance, couldn’t cite any specific supporters.
“Bicycle organizations came out in support of this,” Szakmeister said. “I don’t know who they are.”
Fort Collins Bicycle Coordinator Dave Kemp said he was aware of the ordinance, but “they didn’t come to me looking for input.”
Was anyone in the Fort Collins cycling community consulted before the ordinance was submitted to City Council? I can’t find any evidence of it. Granted, no one in the cycling community needed to be consulted, but it would have been nice.
Still, Lt. Szakmeister, Councilman Manvel, and Bike Coordinator Kemp all agree that the new bicycle surcharge is a good idea.
“It used to be we’d rather stop a car than a bicycle,” Szakmeister said, “but now that the citizens are calling us, we’ve gotta respond. The last two summers, complaints about bikes outnumbered complaints about cars 2-1.”
“People run stoplights and stop signs. People ride the wrong way. The point is that they are to obey traffic laws just like cars. For me this is an equality issue.”
For Councilman Manvel, this is a practical issue. “We have the surcharge for cars to pay for enforcement,” Manvel said. “Bicyclists should participate in enforcement.”
After all, bicycles are participating in roadways’ use, and they certainly participate in traffic infractions.
Bike Coordinator Kemp sees the bike surcharge as an acknowledgement of the bicycle as a viable form of transportation.
“It helps motorists understand that bikes are a viable form of transportation and that we do have a right to the road. This is a good thing,” Kemp said. “Every community is dealing with this. There are more cyclists on the road, so you get more pressure from community leaders to get people to ride more respectfully.”
On one hand, more cyclists on our roads caused more complaints to the police department, which motivated Lt. Szakmeister to write the bike surcharge. And he understandably thinks what he did was very reasonable. But more cyclists could also mean more lobbying for cycling-specific laws and infrastructure that work better for drivers and cyclists alike. And this would in-turn get more people on bikes.
For now, cyclists (myself included) have flouted the laws too many times, it seems. We’ve been busted, sure.
“You know what, though” Rick Price said. “This whole thing is good PR for the cycling community.”
The bike surcharge reopens a can of worms. The discussion will probably be ugly. But with more people getting on bikes in Fort Collins and across the nation, this discussion has to happen. |
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