to go on the bottom of the rear view mirror on the driver’s side of your car, the City has decided to put them on the windshield just below the oil change sticker. So far we’ve delivered 1200 stickers to the City motor pool.
At the CSU Smart transportation fair two weeks ago three campus agencies requested stickers and we ended up giving out 3,000 to the CSU motor pool, parking services, and the CSU Police Department. Parking services intends to distribute a sticker to anyone who gets a parking permit to park on campus.
Finally, the County motor pool called and requested 600 stickers for the smaller county vehicles. Hopefully they’ll find them valuable on every single county vehicle.
The stickers are popular among school kids (any sticker is) and they don’t last long on foreheads or the backs of hands. But they last on bike helmets and on bikes where a lot of them have ended up. They also look great on bathroom mirrors in middle schools and Old Town bars.
If you know of a business with a lot of vehicles that might make use of these, write Click For Email and we’ll see that they get a few hundred!

Representatives from the Bike Co-op receive $900 check from Big Al's (left to right are Matt Diemer, Doug Cutter, Brandon (Big Al's manager), and Rick Price)

The next time you are in the mood for a hamburger or hot dog in Old Town, stop in at Big Al’s and enjoy a burger, a cheeseburger a Detroit Coney Dog or a Chicago Dog (served with sport peppers, neon relish and celery salt!

And as you pay for you lunch, throw that change in Big Al’s change jar to benefit a local 501-c-3 non-profit organization.

Bike Co-op Board President, Doug Cutter, and Rick Price, head of the Safe Cycling project at the Co-op are proud to recieve a check for $900 from Big Al’s staff for June 2011.

“This will help us to complete the rebuild on our panel van for our safe cycling program,” said Cutter. “That’s right,” said Price, “with this we’ll prepare our ‘BEAST – Bike Education and Safety Truck’” to take bicycle safety programs to schools, neighborhoods, and community picnics.

Way to go!!!

See photos and more here.

Exhibit hours: Friday June 3^rd 6pm – 9pm

Location:  The Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative

331 N. College Avenue

Fort Collins, CO 80521

Eligibility: All artwork depicting bicycles, biking culture, bicycle safety, bicycle as alternative transportation, etc. will be considered.

Consideration: To be considered for the exhibit, send a low-resolution image of each piece along with entry form by the entry deadline.  Please e-mail image(s) to fcbc...@gmail.com

Media:  Photography, painting, sculpture, crafts, pottery and other media.  Pieces must be ready to be hung or displayed.  Tables will be available for small 3D pieces.  Only pieces incorporating bicycles or bicycle culture will be considered.

Juror: The Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative Art Committee

Image: Todd Mecklem

Specs:

1. All work must be exhibit-ready and/or ready to hang or display, please no exceptions. Labels with artist name, contact info, price, title & media (supplied at the end of this application form) must be provided by artist upon delivery.

2. Shipping: Work should be shipped to or hand-delivered to The Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative (331 N. College Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521) on or before delivery deadline of June 1^st 2011.  Artwork must be submitted with artists’ name, phone number and address.

3. Liability: Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative will take all precautions to ensure the safety of all artwork. All work will be handled with care. The gallery will be staffed during all open hours of the exhibit. The Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative will not be responsible for any loss, damage, or stolen artwork. Any insurance is sole responsibility of the exhibiting artist.

4. Sales: If the artist wishes to offer the piece for sale, there will be a 40% commission on all sales.  Prices must be included with each piece and can be decided upon by the artist.  Pieces can be listed “Not For Sale” if the artist does wish.

CALENDAR

5/27/11, 5 pm Deadline for entry, application and lo-res photo entries, sent via email to

fcbc...@gmail.com

5/29/11, midnight Artists notified (by email or phone call) of jury results. Do not send any physical artwork until you receive notification.

6/1/11 Deadline for artwork delivery.

6/3/11 Reception during Fort Collins Gallery Walk. Refreshments and music

will be provided.

6/5/11 Artists pick up unsold work.

Bike Art Entry form

Artist Name: ___________________________________

Address: ______________________________________

Phone: ______________________________________

email: ______________________________________

I submit the following pieces to be juried for the Bicycle Art Show at The Fort Collins Bicycle Cooperative on June 3^rd, 2011. I also understand and agree that the organizer of the exhibit reserves the right to reproduce accepted entries for publicity purposes.

__________________________________________

Artist:

Piece #1

Title

Medium

Size

Price

Piece #2

Title

Medium

Size

Price

Piece #3

Title

Medium

Size

Price

Piece #4

Title

Medium

Size

Price

Labels to fill out and attach to the back of each piece:

1. Title

Medium

Size

Price

Artist name

——————————————————————————

2. Title

Medium

Size

Price

Artist name

——————————————————————————

3. Title

Medium

Size

Price

Artist name

——————————————————————————

4. Title

Medium

Size

Price

Artist name

First published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan March 7, 2011

City Council adopted the new Bicycle Safety Education Plan on Tuesday, paving the way for a bicycle program where before we had just a plan.

That plan for the past 15 years was to build bicycle infrastructure. We’ve done a great job at that and continue to do so. The plan included encouragement initiatives like Bike to Work Day, Winter Bike to Work, Light up the Night, Commuter Incentives, Bike Library and others. There was very little education in the plan, though, besides pamphlets, a website and marketing initiatives tied to our encouragement efforts. And there was even less enforcement in the plan, as our police really didn’t know where to begin to reign in the scofflaws.

I am hopeful that we are on the edge of a big change.

What happened in the process of writing the Bicycle Safety Education Plan is that we saw transportation planners talking with traffic engineers, educators and law enforcement officers about how to make this a safer bicycle community. They began asking questions about where and why bike/car crashes happen and how we can prevent them through engineering solutions, serious educational outreach and enforcement with an eye to educating all road users. This important change lays the groundwork for the development of a city bicycle program.

In its 2005 report, “Blueprint for Better Bicycling: 40 Ways to Get There,” Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) identified several categories of cyclists. That report has been getting a lot of traction. We should make use of it as we roll out our new bicycle program.

BTA noted that 33 percent of people won’t pedal, period. Either they are too young and their mother won’t let them, or they are too old, too busy or just not interested. Another 1 percent are wild-eyed cyclists who will ride any time and 7 percent are “enthused and confident” (that’s me and many of you, I presume). The important number here, though, is the remaining 59 percent of the population described as “interested” but “concerned.” Call them a huge pool of potential bicycle riders.

If you talk with this group in Fort Collins, you will find people who express concerns such as “I don’t know what to do when the bike lane finishes,” or “I’m uncomfortable with the traffic in Fort Collins,” or even, “it is simply not safe to bicycle in this town.”

Portland addressed similar concerns by developing bicycle boulevards – think of them as bicycle thoroughfares – on neighborhood streets. They also hold frequent special bicycle events during which they close streets to automobiles to let residents experience riding without fear of cars and to help them create new mental maps of how to get around the community. And they adopted innovative techniques to slow traffic, educate motorists and bicyclists and promote bicycling.

Education is a big part of this new direction. Let me know if you or your business would like to help.

In 2007 the San Francisco Police Department collaborated with the SF Bicycle Coalition to produce a training video for police.  Trainings such as this help police officers become more aware of bicycle laws and practices so that the police on the street can be more effective both at enforcing the law and at education motorists and cyclists on the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists on the road.  Pueblo and Longmont have both undertaken to train their police.  Will Fort Collins be next?

My favorite story of the law and bicyclists in Fort Collins is of the time 1½ years ago, when a Fort Collins police officer stopped the then-National Collegiate Cycling champion and issued a warning for what the officer thought was an illegal left turn.

The national champion, experienced bicycle commuter and experienced bike handler was headed to work on North College Avenue, turning north from the right-most left turn lane on Cherry Street. The officer handed him a pre-printed form from www.Colobikelaw.com. The form explained how a cyclist should make a left turn by keeping to the far right, crossing with the light and repositioning himself on the far right side of the intersection to await the through light.

The officer didn’t realize that the form he handed out mentioned two other legal left turn options available to the cyclist, one of which includes the use of the left turn lane, the choice of this expert cyclist.

The option identified by the police officer is the technique that we teach 12-year-olds, inexperienced cyclists or anyone in a busy intersection. At Cherry Street and College Avenue, there are two left-turn lanes, and experienced cyclists should use the right-most left-turn lane, which leads them right to the bike lane as they complete the turn.

Other oft-repeated anecdotes among cyclists are those involving officers responding to minor bike-car crashes in which the officer asks the cyclist, “Would you like me to file a report?” The correct answer to this question in all cases is, “Yes, absolutely.” But this is a question that shouldn’t even be asked in a bicycle community like ours.

Since 2007, the San Francisco Police Department has used a 10-minute training video to instruct police officers on the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists. Produced in cooperation with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the video informs officers that cyclists should avoid the “door zone” near parked cars and that cyclists should take and “own the lane” on narrow streets. The video further clarifies that bikes belong in traffic, not on the sidewalk. The film explains that officers are required to file an incident report when cyclists report aggression by a motorist or any time a bike-car crash results in injury or property damage. Officers should not dissuade a cyclist from making such a report.

Pueblo and Longmont have done, or are doing, similar trainings. League Cycling instructors in Fort Collins could conduct trainings with Fort Collins Police Services. It would take just 20 minutes to show officers the film, “Bikes Belong In Traffic – SFPD Training Video,” available on www.youtube.com, followed by a brief question and answer session. That should be enough to address recent revisions to Colorado Bicycle Law, dispel “safe” bicycling myths, explain what to expect from safe cyclists and identify dangerous bicycling behaviors in Fort Collins.

When can we start?

Negotiating College and Mulberry in Fort Collins