The Sheriff Stirs Up Trouble

First it was the Larimer County sheriff who tried to raise the level of anger between drivers and cyclists. Now, it's our own Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle who's getting folks all riled up.

It seems like Sheriff Joe met with mountain residents to talk about the new Bicycle Safety Bill, signed recently by Governor Ritter and scheduled to go into effect August 5. Residents are concerned that it allows cyclists to ride anywhere they want and block the roads.

But the sheriff, instead of telling the truth, that the new law doesn't give cyclists the right to ride anywhere or any way they don't already have, said that the new law makes makes blocking traffic by cyclists "basically unenforceable". He said, "Essentially, this law takes away our ability to enforce anything."

This is obviously a lie. The new law does not take away the ability of the sheriff to enforce any laws against cyclists. All it does is require motorists to give cyclists three feet of room when passing. I challenge the sheriff, or anyone else, to show me where in the new law he finds this limit on any of his authority.