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Traffic Calming: The New Bicycle Surcharge in Fort Collins

Written by David Boerner

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 13:56

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.

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BONESHAKER ARCHIVES: Yeoman on the Front Lines: A Bicyclist’s Commuter Diary

Written by Mr. Benjamin Solomon

First printed in Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac Issue BA 42-100

bikeroutebig(2) Wednesday 3/5/08 Home > Work

Today I ride slowly. I like being languid in a world obsessed with speed. When the rest of Atlanta is rushing home in cars, full of end-of-day tensions, dinner plans and desires, I’m rolling my way out to the suburban office where I do afterhours telephone surveys for the YMCA.

My commute is 11 miles through suburbia on a single speed road bike. It’s a bike route par excellence, because nobody would navigate such a circuitous pathway in a car. To bypass busy streets and interstates I add nearly three miles to the distance, winding my way to work over small, hilly residential roads.

I pass Medlock Elementary School. I pass the baseball diamonds of Medlock Park. I cross over North Druid Hills Road in a flurry of frantic pedaling because if I miss this green light it means waiting ten minutes in exhaust. A mile from work is a railroad crossing and a freight train is creaking past. Traffic is thirty cars deep. I cut to the front, and from here I can see the end of the train approaching. If I position myself just so on this little incline I can track-stand until the train passes, then dart through the gates before they open, the first to cross. Today it feels like the whole world yields to me and I make it all the way to work without touching my feet to the ground.

Wednesday 3/5/08 Work > Home

Cause and effect: Because last night I used my headlamp as a flashlight, tonight my headlamp is still sitting on the counter at home. Without a headlamp there is very little to demonstrate to oncoming traffic that I exist. It makes for a wary and tentative ride.

At the crest of a sleepy suburban hill the road takes a ninety degree turn and I meet a car’s headlights face to face. Something about its middle-of-the-road trajectory tells me the driver hasn’t seen me yet and I hug the shoulder, ready to dive onto the lawn if necessary. Just before passing the car swerves away and I know I’ve been spotted. I wonder what the unexpected sight of a dark biker evokes in a driver on an empty road at night. A jolt of panic, a sharp intake of breath, the futile reactive swerve that would have come too late, the silent curses as they drive away, and the tension of that moment lingering all the way home.