I'm a 32-year-old graduate student in civil engineering at the University of Colorado. Last Wednesday, national Winter Bike to Work Day, I was ticked for failing to yield at a stop sign.

I was in a bike lane wearing my helmet and I nearly came to a stop at the stop sign. For the record, I was riding a 1968 Schwinn Racer not much faster than most people walk. Every cyclist riding in this area was hit with the same $100 ticket for failing to yield at the same stop sign -- obviously it was mostly students.

Certainly there are reckless bicyclists on campus; however, I'm not one of them. I could continue to enumerate the outrage of this situation, but I'm hoping it's pretty clear.

I always thought Boulder was a bike friendly town. What are the police hoping to accomplish? Public safety, I would assume, but what about all those jaywalkers. Why didn't they get tickets?

Come to think of it, it's pretty dangerous around here when people don't shovel their sidewalks; maybe they need $100 dollar tickets, too. OK, you get my point. A warning would have done fine I think.

I watched the police issue $1,000 in tickets in a few minutes. I was thinking that if the police enforced traffic laws for cars on national Drive to Work Days, the other 364 days of the year, the city would have a real revenue source on their hands -- and a safer city to boot.

Jim Hauswirth

CU student