[BikeLongmont] LAB Bicycling Friendly Communities

[Richard Masoner]

Devin Quince wrote:

>One example is that I was riding to work on Monday and no bike path I normally take to work was cleared on smow or ice.
>
It would be nice of the city would clear the paths; a survey of the 
path-plowing practices of snow belt award winners would be interesting. 
Nevertheless, since anything besides arterials and a few collectors 
aren't plowed in this city, the city's snow-plowing policy seems 
equitable and reasonable to me; especially given your sig:

>Cyclists should expect and demand 
>safe 
>accommodation on our public roads, 
>just as does every other user.  
>
>Nothing more is expected.
>


Len DeMoss wrote:

>Certainly no comparison between Longmont and Boulder when it comes ot being a bike friendly city.
>
Longmont can learn some lessons from Boulder, but I wasn't comparing 
Longmont to Boulder; I was comparing Longmont with the qualifications 
for LAB's Bike Friendly Community. I've been to some of the cities that 
have received the award, and Longmont seems to compare favorably.  For 
example, Fort Collins (which received the award) claims something like 
200 miles of facilities, but they also seem to have a high proportion of 
"Get off the road" anti-cycling cagers, not to mention those homicidal 
teens pegging cyclists with baseball bats last year. Denver also 
received the award, probably because of their nice path network, and I 
love their "sharrow" innovation, but "Share the Road" seems to have no 
meaning for many motorists in Denver. They'd just as soon shoot you as 
allow you some room on the road.

In Longmont, OTOH, the motorists are very courteous to cyclists. The 
city staff all seem to bend over backwards to address cyclist concerns. 
The police are active in checking up on cyclist complains of aggressive 
motorists. Members of this advocacy lists are on the city staff and 
address the concerns that are raised here. City staff do a great job 
communicating with the members of this list. *That* is absolutely 
invaluable.

As Buzz notes, however, there are certainly opportunities for 
improvement. I think that if Longmont achieves some of the minimal 
requirements for receiving a Bicycling Friendly award, then the city 
could make improvements where applicable, get the award, and use that to 
kick start some media campaigns to push for greater public awareness of 
cyclists rights and the benefits to the community that cycling has.

Len DeMoss wrote:

>What bike lanes there are are not taken care
>of. I typically do not ride the bike lanes in the city only because there's
>lots of gravel and glass in the lanes.
>

I think dirt in the lane would be number one on my list of opportunities 
for improvement. Get rid of the stripes but leave the bike symbols and 
cars would drive in the "bike lane" and sweep the dirt away. :-)

RFM