Chelsea Self / Post Independent
Local transportation officers will likely be working to boost consciousness round a new state law that enables bicyclists to legally roll via cease indicators when no cross visitors or pedestrians are current.
As the climate warms and extra folks enterprise out on their bikes, metropolis transit planner Linda DuPriest stated it’s essential not solely for bicyclists however motorists to know concerning the new rule of the highway.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis final week signed into law the “Safety Stop” invoice lately handed by the Legislature.
The invoice makes it authorized for bicyclists to deal with cease indicators like yield indicators, and to proceed via a pink mild after slowing to test visitors. Cyclists should nonetheless cease if there’s oncoming visitors. The new law, advocated by Bicycle Colorado, applies to bicycles, e-bikes and electric-assist scooters.
“I will be putting together a presentation for the (city) Transportation Commission and City Council as it decides how we implement that here,” DuPriest stated.
Safety cease legal guidelines have been on the books in different states for a number of years, originating in Idaho and ensuing within the casual “Idaho Stop” title for the process.
It makes authorized what many bicyclists usually do after they come to a cease signal at an intersection and no different vehicles are ready, or there’s a pink mild however no different visitors or pedestrians are current. The law nonetheless requires them to decelerate and look, however they may proceed on via with out stopping if it’s secure.
That’s one level to drive house for cyclists, and likewise for motorists, DuPriest and Glenwood Springs Police Lt. Bill Kimminau stated.
“It can be a bad PR statement for bicycling if there’s no education for the motoring public about what it is and how it works,” DuPriest stated. “Without that, it could end up being worse.”
Kimminau stated it received’t actually change something for the police on the enforcement aspect of issues, as a result of ticketing bicyclists for operating cease indicators hasn’t been a excessive precedence anyway.
In his 37 years with the division, he stated he’s solely issued possibly three or 4 tickets to bicyclists, “and it was usually something really stupid.”
Prior to the new law, bicyclists have been required to both act like visitors if touring in the identical lanes with motorists, together with obeying cease indicators and indicators, or to behave like pedestrians if utilizing a crosswalk by dismounting and strolling the bike to the opposite aspect of the intersection.
The new rolling-stop rule for bikes will take some getting used to for motorists, Kimminau stated.
“From the enforcement side of it … the least of our worries now is enforcing bicycle laws, so it will make it easier for us from that standpoint,” he stated.
Glenwood Springs metropolis employee Emery Ellingson frequently rides his bike to work from Carbondale. While some schooling is important for all concerned, he stated the new law is an efficient one for bicyclists.
“I think, overall, it’s a good thing that it’s off the books and you can’t get a citation for rolling through a stop,” Ellingson stated. “But I do think a lot of education also needs to go into it. And if you’re going to ride on the road you still want to think of yourself as traffic and just be aware.”
Senior Reporter/Managing Editor John Stroud may be reached at 970-384-9160 or jstroud@postindependent.com.