Colorado, like Texas, has two sides when it comes to treatment of cyclists. On the one hand, Boulder routinely gets awards as a bike friendly community, and in just the last week Denver’s bike-share program B-Cycle announced early successes with over 8000 users in the first 30 days. Then the casino town of Black Hawk rears its ugly head and bans bicycles from city streets. Yes, my friends, riding your bike on Black Hawk’s Main Street will cost you a $68 ticket.

The story from Denver Channel 7 News quotes the city manager saying he’s doing this to protect cyclists:

“If you go down Main Street there is not much room for a bicyclist, a bus or a car, a truck,” said Mike Copp, Black Hawk city manager. “We are trying to promote safety.”

If you look at a street view of Black Hawk, you will see a town built before cars. The streets are narrow. Rather than create space that can accommodate all users as European cities have done with similarly narrow streets, Black Hawk has decided to keep on truckin’ down a road to more oil consumption, not that Americans see any connection to our personal role in high use of petroleum and its consequences.

Safety. Yeah. Right. Do you know what the number one cause of accidental deaths in the US is? Cars, not bicycles. Do you know the leading cause of all deaths? Heart disease brought on a sedentary lifestyle that involves driving everywhere you go. If they really cared about the health and well being of their citizens, Black Hawk would ban cars, not bikes.