Last week the editor of the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Mike Boyd, wrote an anti-cycling article. I found out about the article from the Medicine Wheel list. His rant was in response to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s public service tips on sharing the road with cyclists. I remember hearing CDOT ads last year. I’m guessing it was about this time of year since more people will be getting out on bikes once the weather gets nicer. It’s been snowing most of the day so I doubt there were many cyclists out today to annoy Mr. Boyd. You can let him know your opinion at Mike.Boyd@csbj.com or 719-329-5202.

He complains about having to slow down for cyclists. The 10 seconds that a motorist has to wait for a cyclist shouldn’t ruin their day. As a matter of fact in Colorado, we basically do have as much of right to the road as the gas guzzling SUVs. Cyclists are required to stay as far to the right as is safe. Unfortunately motorists think they’re the ones that get to decide that it’s safe for us to ride through the pot holes along the curb.

His comment about the tip for cyclists to remember to smile as you bicycle past the rows of cars waiting at the intersection — it’s just polite is “doesn’t this seem to contradict the whole play by the same rules as motorists thing?”. I haven’t looked at the driver’s manual lately but last I knew it’s legal for cyclists to ride up the right side of stopped traffic at a traffic light to the back of the first car in the line. About the tip for motorists to be patient and wait to pass until it is safe he asks, “for whom, the cyclist or the motorist?”. Unfortunately that’s the attitude of lots of motorists.

He does have a point about some cyclists running stop signs, red lights, and not riding single file but plenty of motorist break rules too. I try to always obey traffic rules because of motorists’ opinions and it’s the right thing to do. I had a friend run a stop sign because he got dropped from the group we were riding with. He did get pulled over by a cop. I went and talked to the cop since we had been intentionally buzzed by a motorist a couple miles before. The van mirror had to have been less than 6 inches from my elbow. We were on a 4 lane street and in the bike lane. We had a description and license plate but the cop said there was nothing he could do about it. Talking to the cop right after he caught my friend running a stop sign was bad timing but still cops are rarely willing to protect cyclists.