Because traffic can be so heavy in Black Hawk, Colorado. Somehow cities with millions of inhabitants can manage but not this village that sounds barely larger than a hamlet.
A town in the US has banned cyclists on most of its streets, punishing anyone who gets caught with a $68 (£46) fine. Black Hawk in Colorado, which has a population of just above 100, is thought to be the first town in the US to make cycling illegal after a change in civic law.If the streets are so narrow and dangerous, maybe it's the cars who should be banned and the streets should be limited to bikes or even only pedestrians. Or is the local Boss Hogg unable to imagine life outside of a car?
The curious decree has been introduced for "health and safety" reasons, said administrators of the former goldmining town, which in the 1990s decided to develop gambling to prevent the place vanishing altogether.
Michael Copp, Black Hawk's city manager, the equivalent of chief executive of a local council in the UK, admitted there had not been any accidents to prompt the ban, just concern over potential collisions between motor vehicles and bicycles on 19th-century streets that were designed for horses and carriages.
