A few days ago several hundred bicycles on the Colorado Tour were met, stretched between Almont and Blue Mesa Reservoir. Parts of the two highways were designed to accommodate bikers by providing a three- to four-foot paved shoulder, a wonderful place for bicyclists to ride, much better than many highways. Some riders stayed within that shoulder and some didn't. Riding three abreast takes up more room than the shoulder has available, so some were riding in the roadway. Now, thanks to a special law just passed for the benefit of bicyclists, drivers of motorized vehicles are forced to either break the new three-foot cushion law or slow down to bicycle velocity to prevent crossing the often yellow center line. The new law, signed by Governor Ritter on May 11, does allow any motorized vehicle to cross that center line so they can give a biker the mandatory three feet. If they don't, they get a ticket. And if it's yellow, I think they would also get a ticket. Except, and this is a big except, it is really difficult to cross the center line when the oncoming lane is full of cars and trucks. And it happened often on this trip.

While plodding along at bicycle speed and pondering the logic of such a silly law, I considered that I was pulling a very light trailer, one of those vehicles targeted by the same Governor Ritter to force me to pay more taxes. Yeah, no motor, just a little trailer whose license/ownership fee has been raised by $29, resulting in a new fee more than triple of the original license/ownership fee. This insult is accompanied by an additional $41 for my towing vehicle. I'll be taxed an additional $70 just to "own" these two vehicles. Then I wondered just how much these road-hog carbon-fiber peddlers were paying. Why are they granted the power to slow down lines of traffic to their speed so they can huff and puff away with an audience? Well, obviously they are paying NOTHING ... nothing to ride their fancy-pantcy skinny-tired featherweights on narrow roads, roads that we pay for, and on roads we have to slow down to give them a wide berth. So how about another law, one that forbids ALL bicycles on roads that are not wide enough to allow a bicycle and truck to run side-by-side with the now mandatory three feet of space between them and stay only in the proper lane? Seems like most roads, like those beautiful passes between Ouray and Durango, could, or should be closed to bicycle use. How sad. Or, how about a law that requires every bicycle to purchase the same registration that every other highway legal vehicle now has to buy, and pay the damnable new "road safety" fee? I think bicycles should pay the same to own their pride and joy as I now have to pay to own my little trailer. Imagine, Colorado roads available only for those who pay for them. What a concept. If these two laws are passed, I will have a brand new appreciation and understanding of bicycle riding. Share and share alike is their motto, and it should include sharing the Ritter road safety fee.

Bill Sutton

Delta

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Sharing in road costs.
written by Brent , July 03, 2009

Bill Sutton's argument about bicyclists paying for road usage has become common, especially among motorists frustrated by the increasing number of bicyclists. It has a fundamental problem, however, in its "us-vs-them" attitude. The simple fact is everyone pays for road costs, whether they use them or not. With a little research, Mr. Sutton will find that the greater part of road costs -- at least seventy percent, and as high as ninety percent -- come out of the general fund, to which income taxes contribute the lion's share. Everyone is subject to income taxes, and some bicyclists probably pay more income tax than Mr. Sutton. As such, Mr. Sutton might instead thank bicyclists for taking up so little space on the road in proportion to the taxes they pay to use it.

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