Alternative bike route provided to busiest streets
By Lynn Volkens
Bicyclists wanting to connect from Central City to Highway 119 will now have to do it along a circuitous route to bypass a stretch of Black Hawk’s Gregory Street. On April 24, 2013, the Black Hawk city council amended their Model Traffic Code to establish an alternative bike route and prohibit bicycles from riding on Gregory Street below its intersection with Bobtail Street. Bicyclists are also prohibited from riding on Black Hawk, Main and Selak Streets. The city had previously banned bicyclists from these streets, including Gregory Street in its entirety through Black Hawk and, in 2010, had begun ticketing bicyclists who ignored the “No Bicycles” sign to ride on through. Three of the ticketed riders had sued, losing their case in the lower courts but appealing it all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court where Black Hawk’s bicycle ban was overturned earlier this year. That Court found that Black Hawk could not, per the Colorado constitution, ban bicycles from designated streets unless the city provided an alternative bike route within 450 feet of the banned route.
Support authors and subscribe to content
Subscribe to read the entire article.
