Meeting Minutes and News

May 18, 2004

Guest speaker:

Dan Grunig from Bicycle Colorado joined us to discuss safety and road rage.  It was great to see Dan again who was present at our inaugural meeting over a year ago.  Dan shared many insightful tips on how to avoid accidents, what to do if you are involved in an accident and what we can do to make our biking environment safer.  Some of the key elements of his talk included:

• Safety before you ride:  plan what you will do if you are involved in an incident now.  It is very difficult to maintain composure immediately following an incident and planning can be critical.
• Know the “rules of the road”
• Wear emergency contact/ID on you or bike
• Carry a cell phone (you can leave yourself of voice mail message of details/license plate # ect…and call the police)
• Be visible
• Use a buddy system and let someone know where/when you are biking
• Avoid an attack/road rage:  do NOT escalate a situation.  (A 150lb cyclist wearing metal cleats calling down a truck driver is probably not a good idea.)
• Follow “rules of the road”
• Don’t trigger road rage/turn the other cheek
• Ride with a partner
• Think safety i.e.:  avoid narrow roads at rush hour
• If you are a victim of road rage or accident:
• Think about your safety first
• When you are out of danger, remember details:  description of car/driver, get witnesses or pictures, and license plate #
• Report ALL incidents to police:  call #911 for emergencies, #303-660-7505 for Douglas County problems.  Currently NO reports in Douglas County of road rage against bicyclists even though many of us have been victims because we are not reporting them
• File accident or road rage report (police work hard to find repeat offenders from their data base, but if we don’t report - no data base)
• Civil case or prosecution by DA; Bicycle Colorado can help you find a bike lawyer (free consult 1^st visit)

• How to prevent accidents and confrontation with motorists:  lead by example and be a good and considerate driver.
• Build good facilities:  multi-modal transportation system
• Education for both motorists and bicyclists
• Share the Road signs
• “Bicycle Ambassadors”
• Cycle clubs teach members how to ride safe in groups
• Get police to enforce laws
• Encourage more people to bicycle, increase visibility of cyclists

• Colorado’s new “personal insurance protection” (PIP) law means that cyclist own health insurance pays for their injuries.
• Additional information can be found on Bicycle Colorado’s web site.

Dan also shared new information on Colorado’s Safe Route To Schools bill.  This bill recently passed both the House and Senate.  Presently it is on the Governor’s desk for approval.  This bill requires spending 11.5% of CDOT $14 million from the feds for safety, because 11.5% fatalities are bike/ped related in CO.

Club business:

• Second annual trail repair day was a great success.  Metro Districts was fantastic in providing heavy equipment, material and expertise.  Several sections of the C470 trail were repaired with the main repair at dirt road crossing above Santa-Fe.  The material has loosened up since the repair and Metro is looking into.  The project was featured on the front page of the Herald.
• Elephant Rock ride has asked us for road marshals.  If you are interested let Judy know this is an early morning to mid-afternoon commitment on June 6.  BDC will receive a large donation for this volunteer work from Elephant Rock.

Next meeting June 14^th preliminary agenda:

• Guest Speaker Larry Johnson – Commuting: Why and How.  With ten years of commuting experience Larry will be sharing tips on how to be successful and safe in this enjoyable past time.