Passes & Canyons Blog

On the coast road in the Pacific Northwest.

OK, what happened in 2023 might seem like old news but you have to understand that pulling all these statistics together and analyzing them is time consuming and reports on highway fatalities and such are always released well into the following year. It’s the best information we’ve got so we just have to go with it.

So anyway, it seems like pretty good news that the Colorado State Patrol has released 2023 data showing that drunk- or drugged-riding fatalities went down a whopping 36 percent in 2023. That correlates very nicely with the latest overall traffic fatality data just released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) that shows traffic fatalities in Colorado decreased by by 5.8 percent in 2023, 764 down to 720.

According to NHTSA, about 14 percent of all US traffic deaths are of motorcyclists so if that percentage is carried through on the Colorado figures that would mean about 101 motorcyclists were killed here in 2023. A lower number is good but that still means 101 of your friends or my friends or somebody’s friends and family members died. Better is better but it’s not good.

Restating what we all know, Col. Matthew C. Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol, said “Experienced riders don’t take unnecessary risks. Whether consuming alcohol, marijuana or another substance, intoxicated riders are more likely to lose control of their vehicles and crash.”

At the same time, better truly is better, and a 36 percent drop is amazing. Maybe people really are changing their thinking. I know it used to be a common thing with the OFMC that soon into the day’s ride John was sure to pull off somewhere and pull out his pipe. And stopping somewhere along the way to have a beer was totally normal. It has been years since we’ve done either of those things so if our thinking has changed it makes sense that many other peoples’ thinking has done so as well.

Let’s all keep up the good work. I wonder if a year from now the 2024 numbers will show a similar improvement.
<3>Biker Quote for Today
A motorcycle is like a drug but it doesn’t clog your arteries, impair your brain function, or send you to a rehabilitation center. Plus, it’s completely legal – if you have a license.

Looking down into Clear Creek Canyon from near the top of the incline up and out of the canyon.

Roy called and said the weather was going to be good–we’re doing a ride. I showed up.

Roy didn’t. He got sick and dropped out but there were four of us who made it. As I walked to the group Bob asked me how I would feel about a change in plans. Instead of riding south and having lunch in Monument, how about joining some folks from the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado on a ride they’re doing? Apparently he had spoken with Sarah, who is now a member of that club but used to be a member of the RMMRC, and she had planned a ride starting in Morrison and heading up to Nederland for lunch via a meandering route. Sure, that’s fine with me.

We headed on over to the Phillips 66 at Morrison and oh my gosh, what a lot of people! Yes it was good to see Sarah and Sean but I was a bit skeptical of such a large group. I like rides with maybe seven at most. This looked like about 30.

Sarah was smart, she said we were going to break into two groups and she also listed several restaurants in Nederland that we might individually consider. Good plan. Having 30 people show up unannounced at any restaurant is generally going to be a bad idea and it would guarantee a very long lunch break.

So we started taking off and really, I couldn’t tell where group one ended and group two began. In fact, right off the bat we were getting broken into smaller groups because pulling out of the gas station we had to filter in amongst other traffic on the road. That struck me as just fine.

We rode into Morrison and then took the road that runs up past Red Rocks on the east and I found myself following two guys with one of our guys behind me. We went up under I-70 and down to US 6 going around Golden and got to a red light at the mouth to Clear Creek Canyon. I thought for sure that Sarah had said she planned to go up Clear Creek but the two guys ahead were in the straight-ahead lane, not the left-turn lane. This is where I decided to chuck the whole group ride thing.

I pulled into the left-turn lane and Lindsey pulled in behind me. The guy I had been following motioned for straight ahead but when the arrow came on I pulled ahead, turned left, and left them to go their own way, with Lindsey behind me. I figured that with that many people it not only made sense to disperse among the restaurants, it made sense to each go by whatever route you chose. Besides, I wasn’t anywhere close to hungry so having lunch in Nederland didn’t even appeal to me. What Lindsey was going to do I didn’t know.

We had a very nice ride up Clear Creek Canyon and when we got to Black Hawk I pulled over, as did Lindsey. I told him I had no interest in lunch in Nederland and really didn’t know quite where I intended to ride. He agreed, saying he had a friend in the area that he was thinking of just dropping in on. So we parted ways and I first ducked into a casino to throw away some money and then got back on the bike wondering where to go.

I decided to go back down the canyon to where US 6 splits off to the left (as you’re coming up the canyon) on its way to Idaho Springs. Just 100 feet or so on the Black Hawk side of that intersection is where Douglas Mountain Drive goes steeply, twisting and turning up and over, through a high elevation community, and then steeply down into Golden Gate Canyon on the other side. This is a really nice ride.

So I took that and came down into Golden Gate Canyon, turned right to head on down the canyon and came back out on CO 93 just about a mile from where I had turned up Clear Creek Canyon. Then I just headed home. Nice day, nice ride. Nice not to be in a huge group.

Biker Quote for Today

Life may not be about your motorcycle, but it sure can help you get through it.

The guy who smashed my car would now also be cited for using his cellphone while driving.

It’s not as good as it could have been but it’s better than nothing, I guess. On the final day of the latest legislative session the Colorado House and Senate worked out a compromise hands-free bill and passed it, sending it to the governor for his signature.

As passed in the Senate, SB 24-065, Mobile Electronic Devices & Motor Vehicle Driving, would have made holding your phone while driving a primary offense, meaning the police could stop you simply for violating that law. Instead, the House insisted that it be a secondary offense, meaning you can’t be stopped for it but if you are stopped for something else the officer can also charge you for this violation.

The reasoning, as I understand it, is that some legislators feared it could be used by the police to selectively profile drivers and choose to stop them or not based on things like ethnicity. Sadly, that sort of fear has had plenty of foundation in reality but honestly, if a cop wants to harass someone, if they can’t use this law they’ll just use a different one. Weakening this law will not have any effect on that at all. But it will make it harder to enforce this law.

Still, I can tell you what will happen, at least at times. Cops will see someone using their phone and they will dig as deep as they need to to come up with some other reason for stopping them, then “let them go this time” on the “offense” they stopped them for but cite them for the phone usage.

I know this will happen because it happened to me once in regard to driving without using a seat belt, which was and is still a secondary offense in Colorado. I was on I-225 going the same speed as the traffic around me but I did not have my seat belt fastened. The state patrol guy stopped me for “speeding.” But, being a nice guy (right!) he let me off on the speeding but did cite me for the seat belt.

Bottom line, though, what will happen as a result of this legislation? Will drivers finally start to realize they need to put their damn phones down and concentrate on the number one thing they are doing–driving! My guess is some will. Not all but some. And not as many as would have if it had been made a primary offense. We don’t want to reject what is good because it is not perfect. Any progress is still progress. But it could have been better.

Biker Quote for Today

Owning a motorcycle is like eating biscuits in church–many will judge you but secretly they all want to be you.

The Colorado Capitol Building, where it’s all happening.

I may well be updating this post right up until it gets posted but as I write this now on Sunday afternoon it appears the Legislature is in session and at work on the bill this moment. This bill being SB 24-065: Mobile Electronic Devices & Motor Vehicle Driving.

This morning I got an email from Stump, legislative liaison for ABATE of Colorado, reporting that it had been approved on second reading in the House. When I checked a short while ago it had come up on third reading and then when I came back to it just now it had been amended.

So now what I’m unclear on is whether this means it will need to go back to the Senate to be re-approved with the amendments. I think so. Does it go to a conference committee of the two houses to be reconciled and then need to be passed again by both houses? Is there time to get that done at this late moment in the session? I’m unclear.

What I am clear on is that my initial sense that this year is different, that this year the opposition to this bill has fallen away, was correct. After easily passing the Senate the bill came up in committee in the House and passed out of the House committee by an 11-0 vote. Now I see that on the House floor there have been several votes and the most recent vote was 55-6 in favor. This baby is going to pass! And the governor darn well better be planning to sign it. I can’t imagine he won’t.

Do we dare to think that by the time I click “Publish” on this thing tomorrow that it will be on its way to the governor? It might.

Update
OK, it’s Monday afternoon and the Senate voted not to concur with the House amendments. Before that vote I heard from Stump who said, “With 3 days left in the session and a ton of work to get done, it’s hard to say if there’s enough time to get SB24-065 passed the way we want it. We don’t like the latest amendments that were added, so we hope the Senate will reject them since the bill has to be reviewed by them and then send the bill to a conference committee. That all could happen in time as I saw a bill last week pass through a committee hearing, then through 2nd and 3rd reading in one day.”

Biker Quote for Today

Great memories happen when you don’t know where you’re going.

Bike Week in Daytona.

I haven’t gone after this thread in a while: What stupid things do people ask you when you’re on your motorcycle? Let’s dig in.

• A guy in a weird car with lights and stuff, stops me and asks: Do you know how fast you were going?
• The other day in a shopping center parking lot, a guy asks me if that is my bike. As I’m mounting up, I say “no…but it’s about to be.”
• A few years ago, I was refueling in West Yellowstone on a bleak, 45° very rainy day. Across the pump island, was the father of a bunch gassing up the family minivan. The Dodge was literally rocking from all the kids jumping around inside. Mr. Griswold looked over at me, kinda smirked and said, “I’ll bet you’d like to trade with me right now.” I smiled and said, “Let me ask you: Has every day of your marriage been like your honeymoon?” He thought for a second and replied, “I get it.”
• When people ask me how fast my bike can go, I usually say, “I don’t know.” People don’t really know how to respond, so they just look at me. Sometimes they’ll ask me in a condescending tone how I don’t know, then I’ll tell them, “I may be slow, but I’m alive.”
• Situation: It’s getting toward dusk/dinner time, and has begun to rain. Q: “How are you going to get home?!?” A: “I put on my pants, jacket, helmet, gloves, turn the key, start the engine, then start my normal riding onto the road from the parking lot, and take the way I normally take. Its really quite simple.” Questioner: “Huh?”
• A few years back I was riding with 2 buddies in the Texas Hill County. As we approached a town we slowed down. Unfortunately not enough as the cop clocked us at 101. Another mph and we would have been arrested. The stupid question came when the cop asked how fast the bikes could go. Given the situation we declined to answer.
• I usually leave my helmet on when I ride the elevator on my way to work, to free up my hands and not bang it into the sides of the crowded elevator. So this guy says “You ride your motorcycle to work today?” and I said “No, just being real safe in my truck!”
• Many moons ago while on a Suzuki a guy walks by and says, wow, I didn’t know Suzuki used the same motors as Kawasaki’s, looking puzzled I assured him that they each made their own power plants, he said no they both use motors made by “Dohock,” as he pointed to the DOHC cast into the end cover.
• I was asked the dreaded “Sir, do you know why I pulled you over?” by an LAPD motor officer. I had been making way too good of time down a mid morning freeway (about 90 indicated) and I actually laughed and said “I sure do.” Ended up with a warning and a nice conversation with a fellow rider.
• Q: “Did you drive them all the way from Germany?” A: “Yes, but we had to change the water tires in New York.”

People say there are no stupid questions. I’m not so sure.

Biker Quote for Today

“Animals travel on all fours. Mankind on two. Motorcycling is not a means of transport but an ideology, a nomadic way of life.” -– Amit Reddy