Ritter in Springs today to sign bill protecting rights of cyclists

 4 Comments

• Marvin Owens says:

  May 11, 2009 at 11:33 pm

  I have been following this retarded legislation since february. It is recognized that a bicycle is a vehicle. You can receive a DUI on a bike and riding a bike is a privilege. There for I would like to know how cyclist can receive special rights. By Colorado law it is illegal for a vehicle to impede other vehicles this law must also apply to cyclist. I believe that if cyclist want these privileges they should also have to follow the same rules as other motorist including paying a licence fee and carry at least liability insurance. They should also be required to have a valid plate attached to their bike. They should be banned from riding on sidewalks and walking trails etc. When they violate the laws of the road they should be ticketed as a motorist. As far as crossing a double yellow line to give a cyclist a 3 foot clearance I would not do it. To do so would violate federal law and if a wreck occurred they would charge me and I would have to sue the hell out of the state for violation of federal law. What I would do in this situation is lay on my horn and yell at the cyclist to yield the right of way and stop violating the law for this is the only way to make sure all rights and privileges are extended to all people. In closing this shows why we need to vote ritter out of office before he can impose more of his bush style stupidity on the people of Colorado.
• Colorado Gets Cyclists’ Bill of Rights at Backcountry.com: The Goat says:

  May 12, 2009 at 6:28 am

  [...] the Governor of Colorado Bill Ritter signed a bill that creates fines for motorists who mistreat cyclists. Enforcing the laws will likely be difficult since proving they’ve been broken will be a [...]
• Zen says:

  May 12, 2009 at 10:12 am

  Yeah its actually sort of sad that we need to pass laws to remind people to give cyclists room and not throw things at them. Stupid moronic people. As for the 3 feet rule, there are a lot of times where that just is not feasible. But hell if I can give them 5 feet I will.
• jlbraun says:

  May 12, 2009 at 2:08 pm

  This law will be rather hard to enforce as has been said. But the worse part is that it makes throwing things at people on bikes a LESS serious offence than it is already. CRS 18-3-302(c) defines 1st degree assault as “(c) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he knowingly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes serious bodily injury to any person”

  That would seem to fit the offence of throwing things at a bicyclist in motion, yes? If the bicyclist crashes as a result of thrown objects, they are at risk of death or severe injury.

  The reason they should have not make this law defining throwing things as a simple misdemeanor is that people can get killed if they crash as a result of thrown objects, so it’s more properly 1st degree assault - and in CO that means you can legally use deadly force under CRS 18-1-704(c) to prevent it.

  Which do you think is more effective - a law that says “throwing things at bicyclists is a misdemeanor and will get you a fine” or “throwing things at a bicyclist is 1st degree assault and may get you justifiably shot by said bicyclist”?

  Some of us road weenies have CCW permits and exercise them while exercising. Just sayin’.