A judge has issued a ruling on the ongoing dispute between Garden City and the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt (COG) group over a ban on bicycles on a particular patch of the Greenbelt.

Ada County District Judge Cheri Copsey, in a statement on the lawsuit brought by COG against Garden City over the matter, said that COG did not have standing to file suit because they've suffered no "particularized harm" directly.

"The issue is narrow," wrote Copsey. "Until the Court rules on whether the Plaintiff, Citizens for an Open Greenbelt, can meet the requirements to establish standing, the Court cannot address the merits because standing is fundamental to prosecuting any lawsuit.”

Essentially, the group can't bring a suit against the city, and the Court would have to establish standing in in order for them to have a case.

However, Judge Copsey added that the Court's decision makes no attempt at deciding the issue of whether Garden City should open the Greenbelt to bikes.

Want to know how bike-friendly Boise is? Take a look at the number of used bikes for sale. After adjusting for population differentials, priceconomics.com puts Boise ahead of cities like Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Spokane, Honolulu, Eugene, San Antonio, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

In fact, the used merchandise consumer pricing website listed Boise as the 19th best city in America for biking.

Priceconomics.com sifted through six month's worth of used bicycle posting nationwide on Craigslist to find cities with the most listings per capita.

Additionally, Boise came in 16th place on its so-called "hipster" list, for the number of fixies (fixed-wheel bikes) for sale per capita, ahead of Austin, Denver, Reno, Fort Collins, Spokane and Medford.

The ongoing battle over bicycle access to a stretch of the Greenbelt in Garden City continues.

In response to an Oct. 25 letter from Eagle Mayor Jim Reynolds, neighboring Garden City pooh-poohed efforts to bring the two together for talks. The issue? A mile and a half of Greenbelt barred to cyclists that supporters call a nature path. Critics like the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt call it discriminatory.

Evans and the Garden City City Council responded to Reynolds on Nov. 16, stating that they "have no interest in discussing a change in the status of our Nature Path." Furthermore, they say that allowing bicycle use on that portion of riverside property would "have a direct and adverse impact on Garden City, Eagle, Boise, Ada County and Canyon County residents that regularly use the path for their recreation purposes."

The letter (read the full text here) instead asks that Eagle send a little money their way:

"Our pathway-related resources continue to be focused on a north/south pedestrian/bicycle bridge immediately upstream of the river split at Eagle Island. ... We would welcome your support for that project both in the form of a resolution and a financial commitment on your part."

After a preliminary hearing on Dec. 15, COG and Garden City head to Ada County court on Feb. 15.

The City of Eagle has formally weighed in on the bike-ban controversy circling a stretch of the Greenbelt that runs through Garden City.

Tuesday evening, the Eagle City Council unanimously approved a motion to send a letter to Garden City Mayor John Evans and the Garden City Council regarding the issue, asking for a sit-down on the matter.

"The current Garden City restriction has a direct and adverse impact on Eagle residents who would like to ride on the Greenbelt from Eagle to or through Garden City," read the letter.

Citizens for an Open Greenbelt have gone as far as to take the issue to the Fourth District Court, where a hearing on the matter is slated for Thursday, Dec. 15.

Boise Bicycle Project announced on its Facebook page that it had been done: enough cash has been raised for the non-profit to purchase its current facility at 1027 Lusk St. and make it a permanent home.

"Huge thanks to all the people who made it possible, stop by and see us, we'll be at the shop for the next 100 centuries!" said BBP on Facebook.

The "Biking to Buy the Building" fundraiser established a goal of $115,00 to purchase the warehouse; it broke that number with $115,843 as of Mon. October 3. October also marks the 4th anniversary of their opening.

"We’re very excited. We’re all very excited," bike mechanic Andrew Little told Boise Weekly. "We’re extremely grateful for all the support we’ve received from the community thus far, and grateful for the continued support from this community."

Citizens who are anxious to stop a "bike ban" on the Greenbelt in Garden City will take their fight to City Hall tomorrow. But it will be Eagle City Hall.

"For the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt to be able to formally present our case to another impacted city is a major milestone for us," said Gary Segers, founder of COG. "We feel that Eagle's residents and businesses are seriously affected by the Garden City bike ban."

A 1.5-mile section of the Greenbelt in Garden City requires bicyclists to dismount. COG has filed a formal complaint against Garden City, which will be heard in Fourth District Court on Feb. 21, 2012.

At the base of the new addition to Boise State’s Lincoln Garage sits a new shop for the bike-minded student: the Cycle Learning Center. As a joint effort of the university's Transportation and Student Health departments, the CLC is an education hub meant to stem the tide of driving commuters and offer aid to anybody thinking of riding a bike as a means of commuting.

• Boise State-themed bikes are available for rental.

“We’ve done a couple of studies. Thirty-five percent of students live within a two-mile radius and about 50 percent live within a three-mile radius,“ said J.C. Porter of Boise State’s Transportation and Parking Services. “Mostly we’ve been seeing these people commuting [to campus] on their bikes.”

Newly formed bicycle interest group the Ada Bike Alliance will be staging a bike count Tuesday through Thursday of this week in various locations throughout Boise.

Rick Overton, chairman of the ABA, said the goal is to gather information for a national database that can be provided to local city planners to better assess the level of bicycle infrastructure the city needs. Overton said the count is necessary because previous bike counts have been too targeted to specific locations or intersections for which projects are planned.

"We're hoping to gather something that's more universally instructive for planners," said Overton.

More than 40 volunteers will be taking shifts and counting bikes on a clipboard. They will be posted everywhere from the Greenbelt to Cloverdale to the area surrounding the proposed new multimodal transit center and even some spots that aren't recognized as bike routes.

"We want to know not only how people are using the suggested routes but how many people are using the non-suggested routes," said Overton.

Overton said a major area of focus will be in western Ada County, where planners are considering the amount of wayfinding signage to incorporate into development.

Citydesk will keep you posted on the findings.

Approximately 125 members of the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt convened at the corner of Glenwood and Riverside streets in Garden City this morning to protest a ban on bicycles on a section of the Garden City Greenbelt.

COG says that the original donation of the land in 1980 dictated its usage as a bike path. Garden City disagrees. The issue has gone back and forth in court for the last several years. Officials said that the goal today was to make their cause more visible to the general public.

To do so, they walked their bikes through the section of the Greenbelt that is closed to bicycle traffic, waving and greeting residents and pedestrians, some of whom heckled them in response.

"I hope you get a ticket," shouted one homeowner. A man standing next to him raised his fists as if to say, "Put up your dukes."

"This is the only place I can walk without getting run down by bikers," a frustrated pedestrian grunted.

But not everyone was against them. Many passing cars honked in approval, and some pedestrians made approving comments.

Several of the protesters rode unicycles, tricycles and one four-wheeled pedal car as a commentary on the ban's wording only applying to bicycles.

The group reached the end of the disputed section of pathway and turned around. When they got back to the start, some headed to City Hall but most of the crowd dispersed.

A debate over Greenbelt access in Garden City, which has already raged for four years, will make its way to Ada County Court next February.

Citizens for an Open Greenbelt said today that their suit against Garden City over access to a 1.5-mile section of the Greenbelt in the city's Riverside Village area, will be heard Feb. 21, 2012, in district court.

COG claims original Idaho State Land Board documents prove that the stretch just west of Glenwood Street and north of the Boise River "was intended to be a bike path."

"For over four years, COG has attempted to resolve this issue with Garden City officials," said COG spokesman Gary Segers. "But they have steadfastly refused to open this path to bike riding."