Posts tagged 2012
Fifth annual Lighten Up Boulder safety campaign offers discounts for bike lights
Sep 28th
As fall sets in and the days get shorter, the City of Boulder, Community Cycles, the University of Colorado (CU) and local businesses are teaming up for the fifth annual Lighten Up Boulder safety campaign to encourage the use of bike lights for nighttime riding. The campaign offers 10 to 20 percent discounts on select bike light accessories at participating Boulder businesses.
Bike light coupons can be printed from the GOBoulder.net website or picked up during business hours at the following locations:
- the GO Boulder office at 1739 Broadway, second floor,
- the Community Cycles shop at 2805 Wilderness Place, Suite 1000; or
- the CU Bike Station on campus at the University Memorial Center (UMC).
The coupons can be redeemed at any of the eight different retailers listed on the coupon and are valid through Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012.
The campaign also reminds cyclists that biking at night without proper lighting is both illegal and unsafe. Without bike lights, cyclists cannot see what’s ahead and drivers cannot see cyclists. The Boulder Revised Code requires all cyclists traveling between sunset and sunrise to equip their bikes with both a mounted white light on the front and a red reflector on the back (B.R.C. 7-5-11: Bicycle Headlight and Reflector Required).
“Riding your bike at night without adequate lighting can result in dangerous situations for you and others, as well as a $50 fine,” said Bicycle/Pedestrian Transportation Planner Marni Ratzel. “We hope that this campaign will encourage more cyclists to mount lights on their bikes, making nighttime travel in Boulder safer for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.”
For access to bike light coupons, bike maps and safety tips, visit www.goboulder.net.
Boulder Police to increase crosswalk enforcement for September
Sep 18th
Starting on Sept. 17, 2012 and going through the end of the month, officers from the Boulder Police Department will increase safety enforcement at city crosswalks as part of “September Crosswalk Safety Weeks.” At its Sept. 18 meeting, City Council will be designating Sept. 17 – 28 as September Crosswalk Safety Weeks as part of the ongoing “Heads Up: Mind the Crosswalk” public education campaign. Police at the University of Colorado will also be stepping up enforcement on and around the campus.
Earlier this year, several new ordinances went into effect. The three 
ordinances in the Boulder Revised Code are:
- “Stop at crosswalk required” [7-4-77] stipulates that when one vehicle stops to yield for a person in a crosswalk, another vehicle going the same direction in an adjacent lane cannot overtake and pass that vehicle.
- “8 mph speed limit for bicycles in a crosswalk” [7-5-5] establishes a speed limit of 8 mph for bicyclists during the immediate approach, entry and traversal of any crosswalk that spans a roadway.
- “Pedestrian obedience to traffic signal required” [7-5-15(f)] targets the use of flashing crosswalks (those with flashing yellow crosswalk signs) by requiring a person crossing to enter the crosswalk with the warning device activated.
Boulder police, along with officers from the University of Colorado Police Department, will focus their safety efforts on high-incident crosswalks, many of which are on or near the university campus.
Police will also be keeping an eye on school zones. At the same time, the Boulder Valley School District is educating students about crosswalk safety with activities such as assemblies, art projects and events planned during the designated Crosswalk Safety Weeks.
Fines for breaking these ordinances range from $50 to $125. Drivers may also receive points against their license.
CU Law School students and alumni to teach high school students statewide about the Constitution
Sep 13th
More than 75 students and dozens of alumni of the University of Colorado Law School will teach a lesson on the Fourth Amendment in more than 100 high school classrooms throughout Colorado the week of Sept. 17- 21 in recognition of Constitution Day.
Constitution Day is a national event that annually commemorates the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the United States Constitution.
The students and alumni will visit classrooms in Aurora, Boulder, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Denver, Glenwood Springs, Grand County, Greeley, Fort Collins, Longmont, Watkins and Wray as part of the Colorado Law School Constitution Day Project, launched in 2011 by the Byron White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law
“The program was such a success last year that we have expanded it significantly for 2012 and hope to continue that expansion in future years,” said Melissa Hart, associate professor of law and director of the Byron White Center. “We are particularly pleased to be able to visit schools all over the state, and will maintain that priority as we expand.
“Our students and alumni are excited about the opportunity to work with high school students and teachers, and to contribute to the important goal of broadening public constitutional literacy.”
The lesson plan, which was created by law students with the guidance of Hart and several high school civics teachers, begins with a review of the basic structure of the Constitution and then focuses on the text of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures of private property by the government. After reviewing the law, students will be guided through a debate about whether a school’s search of a student’s text messages violated the student’s constitutional rights.
In the first year of the project in 2011, the center sent 60 law students to over 50 high school classrooms to teach a lesson, which was followed by student debates involving a hypothetical situation that applied the First Amendment to a student Facebook posting.
