Avoiding pedestrian collisions with bicycles, scooters on sidewalks in Colorado Springs
Scott Harrison
COLORADO Springs, Colo. (KRDO) — A viewer recently recalled her close call with a bicycle on Tejon Street, one of the few streets in town where bike riding is illegal.
Annie-Marie Young said that it had never happened to her before.
“I got out of my car, just like normal, and I popped up on the curve here,” she explained, re-tracing her steps. “And it startled me so much. As I got onto the sidewalk, I saw a bicyclist coming at me, fast! There was no way I could move quickly enough to get out of his way.”
But she said that somehow, she narrowly avoided the collision.
“The rider kept going and didn’t acknowledge me or say anything,” she said. “Is it safe for people to ride bicycles on sidewalks with all of the people walking there?”
According to city officials, bike riding is legal on streets, with a few exceptions: downtown, on Tejon Street and Vermijo Avenue, which are considered to have heavy pedestrian traffic; and the same applies in Old Colorado City, on Colorado Avenue between 23rd and 28th streets.
Young’s near-collision happened on the newly-widened block of Tejon, between Colorado and Pikes Peak avenues.
However, enforcing bicycle riding on sidewalks can be difficult because police don’t always catch violators in action.
City officials depend on the honesty policy — that pedestrians and cyclists will be alert and travel safely, and that cyclists will obey the law.
At some intersections on sidewalks where biking is illegal, the city has painted signs on the sidewalk asking people to walk their bikes or their scooters across.
Jason Benjamin owns the Kava Works bar on Pikes Peak Avenue and said that he worries more about people colliding with scooters than with bicycles.
“I see that happen every night,” he said. “People riding extremely recklessly on these electric scooters. I have seen collisions with other scooters, not necessarily with a pedestrian, yet. But, that could change.”
City officials said that scooters and even skateboards are also legal on sidewalks except in the above-mentioned areas.
“I don’t have an issue with any of these riders if people are going slow, riding safely, and not weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic,” Benjamin said. “If they want to go fast, they should use the bike lanes.”
However, there is a limited number of bike lanes downtown.
Young may have the best solution.
“I’m going to look both ways before I step onto a sidewalk,” she said. “Just as I look both ways before crossing a street.”
During coverage of this story on Monday morning, two more viewers shared their thoughts on the subject.
Among them was Larry Scubarth, 74, of Colorado Springs, who said that he is a disabled veteran.
“I cannot drive a vehicle because of my vision,” he wrote in an email. “I live downtown and walk or take the bus. “Every day, there are near misses between me and scooters or bicycle riders on the sidewalk. And people leave the scooters wherever they arrive, lying on the sidewalk, barring myself and neighbors, most of us with physical or vision disabilities. It’s finally refreshing to hear that SOMEONE is addressing the problem.”