Cyclists and motorists must learn to share the road

Rob Lucas has been doused with a soda and nearly hit by a bottle rocket. He’s been threatened with being run down and slapped on the butt.

Such, he says, are the hazards of riding a bicycle along the road in Colorado Springs.

“I’d say it’s a small percentage, but there is a percentage of people that have even come into the bike lane to harass me,” said Lucas, a software developer who runs a cycling Web site, ultrarob.com. “They just don’t want cyclists on the road at all.”

In a city where fitness and cycling are ways of life — Bicycling Magazine, in its May issue, ranks Colorado Springs the 18th most bike-friendly city in the country — there is an undercurrent of anger and frustration between drivers and cyclists.

The ill-will burst to the surface last week, with news of a road-rage incident in which police say an irate driver threatened and pulled a gun on a cyclist for riding in the road.

In a fierce debate on gazette.com, cyclists told tales of suffering similar harassment, while drivers wrote of being frustrated by cyclists riding in traffic lanes three abreast. Colorado Springs is one of few cities with an excise tax on bike sales to build bike lanes, but the network of urban trails for bikes contains numerous gaps that force cyclists onto streets, and only 76 of the city’s 1,600 street miles have bike lanes.

So are we really as bike-friendly as we think we are?

Incomplete network

Dr. Kyle Akers drives 30th Street often between Fillmore Street and Garden of the Gods Road, and he is troubled by how close to traffic cyclists ride.

“There is a bike trail off to the side which could be used by cyclists, but for some reason many choose to take their chances on the road,” said Akers, one of many people who responded to a request by The Gazette to share their thoughts on the bike-vs.-cars debate.

“I really wish they would use the  trails or the city would try to prohibit them, just for their own safety,” he said.

In 1988, the city adopted the Bicycle Excise Tax; $4 on every bike sold in the city funds bicycle transportation improvements. Last year, the tax yielded $99,442, down from $106,706 in 2008. The city added 5 miles of bicycle lanes last year, down from 16 the year before, said senior transportation planner Kristen Bennett.

She said the city can only afford to build bike lanes on roads where other work, such as widening, is being performed, and the overall city budget crisis that has slowed such projects has impacted bike lane construction.

At the same time, the city has an extensive urban trail network, more than 110 miles, funded through the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks tax, but numerous gaps remain. For example, both ends of the Shooks Run Trail, which runs between Fountain Boulevard and North Weber Street, are just a few blocks from the Pikes Peak Greenway, the main north-south trail in the city, but gaps remain because of land-acquisition difficulties.

So cyclists looking to make loops or visit other parts of the city venture onto the streets.

And sharing the road is easier said than done.

Road rage

In the past two weeks, Colorado Springs police have noted two instances that show the dangers of cycling in the city: On April 4 a cyclist was left with a broken leg and broken collar bone when a car slammed into him near downtown and then drove off. Police later arrested the driver, Steven Acord, on suspicion of felony hit-and-run. And police arrested Curtis Scriver Monday after a cyclist told officers that Scriver was angry at him for being in the street with his bike. The cyclist told police that Scriver pulled out a gun and threatened him.

Det. Daniel Smoker, a crash investigator with Colorado Springs Police, said those two incidents were an anomaly for the city.

“We don’t get a lot of calls like those,” he said. “I think we’ve come a long way. Every year as people become more aware of cyclists and hazards, things have improved. Just the awareness has improved.”

Still, he said, drivers should be extra-aware of cyclists. He said this time of year — when the sides of the roads and the gutters tend to be filled with sand used to melt snow — can be especially hazardous for cyclists. To avoid the sand, the cyclists have to ride closer toward the center of the road which can cause more tensions between them and motorists.

Legally, vehicles must give cyclists ample room when passing. In 2009, the Colorado Legislature passed the Bicycle Safety Act which required drivers to give at least 3 feet of clearance when passing a cyclist.

However, the law is tough to enforce. Police must see the car attempting to pass the cyclist and gauge the distance. Smoker said he doesn’t know of any tickets that have been written in the city for vehicles passing too close.

The section of Austin Bluffs Parkway where Monday’s road-rage incident began, north of the intersection with Academy Boulevard, is slated to be widened in 2012, and bike lanes will be built.

A few bad apples

Cyclists are legally allowed on any street in town, but that doesn’t mean they should ride there, said Ed Johnson, owner of Colorado Springs Bike Shop on West Colorado Avenue.

“There are many streets in town that just weren’t designed for cyclists. There’s just no shoulder and you should avoid those places,” said Johnson. He mentioned Powers and Academy boulevards as places to avoid, because of narrow shoulders and high traffic volumes.

So why not ride on the sidewalks, which is allowed anywhere except for a section of downtown and Old Colorado City?

Said Lucas, “Motorists think cyclists should be on the sidewalks, which obviously isn’t the law and isn’t practical if you’re riding with any kind of speed.”

The consensus among cyclists and drivers interviewed was there are a few negative examples on both sides that cause problems.

“Some of the motorists’ complaints are valid, but at the same time motorists break just as many of the rules as cyclists do,” said Lucas.

And the angry disputes occur all over. Last month, ESPN analyst Tony Kornheiser went on a rant about street bikes on his radio show, urging listeners to “tap” cyclists with their cars. When word of the rant reached cyclist Lance Armstrong, he called Kornheiser an idiot.

The two have since made nice, and considering the city will never build bike lanes on all 1,600 miles of roadway, that is what motorists and cyclists in Colorado Springs may have to do.

“Unfortunately that kind of bad behavior does exist, but I don’t think it’s just cyclists who do it. Drivers do it to one another. They do it to pedestrians,” said Bennett, the city transportation planner. “I think perhaps everyone just needs to take a deep breath and relax a little.”