Colorado Supreme Court to hear bike case

BOULDER, CO (BRAIN) — Colorado's highest court will hear arguments in November on a case involving a mountain town's ordinance banning bikes from a once-popular cycling route.

The town of Black Hawk, 35 miles west of Denver, banned bikes from most of its roads in 2010. At the time the city manager said the roads did not allow enough room for bikes to share safely with other vehicles. The ordinance originally allowed local residents, but not non-residents, to ride on the roads, but a lower court rejected that clause.

Blackhawk, once a booming mining town, was nearly a ghost town until it was revived when casino gambling became legal there in the early 1990s. The city is near the southern end of the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway, a popular high-elevation route for road riders. But the city ban prevents cyclists from accessing the Byway from the south.

In 2010 three cyclists who were cited for violating the ordinance and fined unsuccessfully challenged the ordinance in municipal and district courts. They then appealed to the state Supreme Court, which agreed this spring to hear the case. Last week lawyers learned the date of the oral arguments, November 8.

The cyclists' lawyers argue in part that the ordinance violates a state law that says bikes can be banned from roads only when there is an alternate route available.