City Government
Boise Coppers Bike Safety Car Is Mobile Billboard
May 2, 2014 
Boise coppers have unveiled a car with more bumper stickers than a Republican Primary, but these messages are aimed at promoting bike safety.
Timing is everything with these promotions and the car lead a parade May Day and May is also bike month. Let’s hope the cars and bikes can avoid contact while still being friends.
The “speedy black” prowl car joins the one dedicated to breast cancer awareness with the pink highlights sponsored by St. Alphonsus regional medical center.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
© 2014 Boise Guardian. 
May 2, 2014, 9:14 am
Glad to see the city of Boise has enough discretionary funds that enables them to spend money on these pet projects. Drive around the back side of the city forestry department and you’ll see a dozen or more black Ford police SUVs that have been hidden amongst the piles of wood chips for months. Why purchase them if you don’t seem to need them?
EDITOR NOTE–The pimp job on the bike car was a freebie from the outfit that designed the new black speed wagons. The SUVs you mention are probably just awaiting their turns to get outfitted, but I will bet a copper will read this and respond.
May 4, 2014, 5:47 pm
So what do you think that the ACHD board will cave to all the pressure from the Mayor?
We live in a City were the minority rules the majority. The mayor and less than 50 bikes want bike lanes then screw the 15,000 drivers that PAY FOR THE roads.
The second strategy here is to make the downtown traffic so messed up that “we must have a trolley to fix it”. The old create the problem to facilitate the fix routine.
May 5, 2014, 8:45 am
The graph on page 5 shows that even if a cyclist does not own a car, he/she pays. Less than 1/3 of funding comes from sources specifically associated with car ownership.
http://www.achdidaho.org/Departments/Administration/Docs/2014Budget/FY2014_budget_final.pdf
May 5, 2014, 9:49 am
I like that the BPD is recognizing bike safety is a worthwhile cause. Now they need to do there part in enforcing laws as they relate to bike safety. The Bike Salmon(wrong way cyclist) and Bike Ninjas(No lights) would be an easy place to start.
Boise has a “3 Foot to Pass” law as noted on this car. That law was passed to feel good after a rash of Cyclist deaths. I doubt it has been enforced but 1 or 2 times even with many complaints. Either BPD needs to get out the enforcement or allow cyclist to submit video proof of these infractions.
I do think that cycling safety needs to be a community effort. It is too bad more organizations were not involved. The Boise Bicycle Project, Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance and Safe Routes to School are the leaders for cycling safety. These organizations are out in the community everyday teaching and advocating bike safety.
May 5, 2014, 10:18 am
Let’s close off downtown to all vehicle traffic…
May 5, 2014, 7:18 pm
Bike activism…another reason for humans to go through life pissed off and looking for a fight.
May 6, 2014, 7:59 am
You are right blask…I have heard 3 sound bytes from different people just this morning all blaming drivers for the ills of bikers. I think there needs to be much more attention paid to this problem by LE, but as we have heard before bikers and it seems traffic is not a priority to BPB. For the life of me I cannot figure out what they do all day.. and night if traffic is not a priority since!Boise has such a low crime rate.
May 6, 2014, 8:18 am
I avoid downtown as much as possible and encourage the activist shunning of it by everyone I know. They will expand their taxing geography soon due to their policy choking the life out of business and people within their current reach.
May 7, 2014, 12:20 am
I was just telling my husband that an officers daily briefing to his SGT. will start sounding like a post race interview from a NASCAR driver with all these “pet” vehicles. “Yeah sarge the yellow and black bike saftey Dodge Charger was out in force tonight. We arrested 3 and wrote 5 violations. We’d like to thank our sponsors at the jail for the assist.”
May 7, 2014, 7:37 am
I wonder when the all black/dark blue paramilitary uniforms will be replaced by jump suits with logos all over them. Then you can add... if it wasn't for our supply of poweraide and redbull we wouldn't have been able to win this one for team Dave...(Bieter...not Fraizer) to the end of the post shift interview/photo op.May 7, 2014, 9:18 am
The obvious reason is because Boise has a police department run by individuals who scamper about putting out fires instead of looking at a problem and coming up with a solid solution. Today the loudest screamers are bike riders. So the the answer: media saturation, bumper stickers and voice concern. Has anything really changed? Of course not. Tomorrow it will be an incident at a school requiring a fire to be stomped out and another media campaign. The next day dogs on leashes, followed by unlocked cars, PTSD, guns on campuses (again) video taping cops, chase policies. It goes on and on every month. It never ends because the leadership doesn’t care about a solution. It’s political correctness and indecision at it’s worst. And in the meantime, this city has a few hundred cops trying to decipher the policies these clowns implement and pay the price if they make a misstep. Couldn’t pay me enough to work in this city as a cop. Lack of crime seems to actually confuse the issues here.
May 9, 2014, 11:06 am
Blask… though you are correct that type of “panic button management” is typical. I know it was rampant when I was in the military anyway. You are right about political correctness also.. if it wasn’t for the appeasement factor no one in their right mind would have come up with the debacle we have with the bikers (all 20 of them) down town. Again I will agree that the lack of crime/too many cops with nothing productive to do plays into this as well. Wow… I must a took too much Prozac this morn… I’m awful agreeable.
May 14, 2014, 5:29 pm
Police Chief: What’s the deal with the motorized bicycles which travel about 25 mph but typically do so in bike lanes or near the side of the road because they are not fast enough to mix with traffic. They are not licensed as a motor vehicle, They’re typically painted black, and typically have a helmetless rider. They are all the hazards of a bicycle and motorcycle rolled into one.