CHEYENNE — The hot-rodding begins every day after 5 p.m. at the Jack C. Spiker Parking Structure on 17th Street, but it is especially active on Friday nights.
Brian Snyder, who owns Bohemian Metals directly across from the garage and lives in an upstairs apartment above his business, has come to expect it every weekend over the years.
However, something unexpected occurred this past Friday night amidst the usual noisy Friday night shenanigans.
“I heard this guy pull into the garage, and it was one of the regular guys,” Snyder told Cowboy State Daily. “He likes to drive around the garage and throttle his motorcycle until it sounds like it’s about to explode. So, high RPMs, followed by a backfiring pop.”
Snyder explained that this frequently activates all of the parking garage’s car alarms.
“It’s like a game,” he explained. “He does that to set off all the alarms.”
Snyder heard one round of the usual game on Friday afternoon, just before 5 p.m. Then he heard something very unusual. It was an explosive noise, much louder than usual.
He knew immediately that something terrible had occurred.
He went to the garage right away after hearing the sound to see what had happened.
An EMS vehicle arrived on the scene around the same time.
Snyder observed that the motorcycle driver had failed to stop in time. He’d charged full speed into the south concrete wall, which was the furthest away from Snyder’s business.
“What I had heard was the impact of his motorcycle,” Snyder told the reporter.
Ticketed for reckless driving.
According to a Cheyenne Police Department statement, the rider involved in the accident was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and ticketed for careless driving, riding without a motorcycle endorsement, and failing to provide proof of insurance.
A motorcycle endorsement is added to a driver’s license to authorize the operation of a motorcycle.
According to the man’s statement to police, the bike accelerated into the south wall of the garage after he engaged the clutch and revved the engine.
“This incident serves as an important reminder of the responsibility that comes with operating any motor vehicle—especially a motorcycle,” Cheyenne Police Chief Mark Francisco said. “Reckless behavior not only puts the rider at risk but also endangers the safety of others.”
Snyder expressed sympathy for the injured man while also viewing the incident as a warning to those who have used the Spiker garage as a playground for their vehicles.
He doubts they’ll get the message. After the accident was cleared, more motorists arrived for more noisy hot-rodding in the garage, seemingly unaware of the previous accident.
“It starts every evening after about 4:30 p.m.,” Snyder said. “And it’s summertime, too, so it also gets worse during the summer months versus winter months.”
Everyone has been cooped up, Snyder explained. He gets it. Summer arrives, and more people are eager to let off steam somewhere.
But it’s a dangerous place to do so, Snyder said, and he’s concerned that more people will be injured.
City Taking Additional Steps
Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins told Cowboy State Daily that he was disappointed to learn that hot-rodding activity continues in the Spiker garage and that the city is taking additional steps to address the issue.
These steps include the recent approval of $100,000 in overtime, which will be used, in part, to increase patrols in the Spiker garage.
“We all feel like that is not appropriate and really disappointing, especially for the gentleman who owns Bohemian Metals,” Mr. Collins said. “He lives above the building, and the noise keeps him awake at night. Nothing frustrates me more than people who behave like that.”
Collins said he hopes that people in the community who witness such behavior in the garage will take note of the license plate number and report it to police to help catch the perpetrators.
“We’ve got great cameras in there now,” Collins said. “So, based on that, we were able to contact some people and discuss proper etiquette. It’s unfortunate how this affects people who live and work in those areas.
Ward I Councilman Scott Roybal told Cowboy State Daily that he has been speaking with people near the garage, and that the police chief has informed him that changes to Cheyenne’s noise ordinance are being considered.
“Every time I talk to somebody who lives right around there, we’ve had complaints about the noise,” he told me. “The ‘mosquito’ cars will go up in there and they’ll start running around, and they do it in the evenings, and motorcycles, too, stuff like that.”
Ward I Councilman Jeff White told Cowboy State Daily that other actions at the garage aimed to improve visibility.
“We’ve spent almost a million dollars renovating the bathrooms there, putting in security cameras,” he told me. “We have a private security company that drives through there at certain times of the day. And I know the police have increased patrols in the Spiker garage.”
White stated that the council has also discussed the possibility of installing gates at the garage’s entrance to force people to slow down when leaving and entering. He added that there would likely be no charge for passing through the gate. It would simply be a slow-down mechanism.
Ramping Up Traffic Enforcement Across Cheyenne
Ward I Councilman Pete Laybourn told Cowboy State Daily that part of the $100,000 in overtime will be used to enforce speed limits and red lights.
Laybourn is a member of a committee that is working on various traffic issues in Cheyenne, including the Spiker garage.
“The parking garage has our full attention,” he told me. “We will continue our efforts because it is the heart of downtown.
Parking is important. We have parking issues that we need to address, so we’re not ignoring them; we just haven’t found all of the answers, but I believe we’ll need to have more enforcement directly involved.”
Laybourn, a downtown property owner, agreed that the noise downtown, especially on weekends, has become particularly disturbing.
“It starts first thing in the morning and runs until midnight or 2 a.m.,” he informed me. “And that’s really not true; there’s no good in it. This antisocial behavior did not exist previously, so we must address it.
He added that Cheyenne’s traffic issues are not limited to the garage. An increasing proportion of Cheyenne’s population is treating the highway as a performance arena.
A place to do wheelies and tailpipes on a Friday or Saturday night, as well as go much faster than the posted speed limit.
“That really is serious, because if you drive the same streets as I am, if you’re going the speed limit, you’re getting passed,” he told me.
Meanwhile, he’s discovered that modified mufflers are a problem not only in his region, but also internationally. More and more people are modifying vehicles in questionable ways, which causes noise and other issues.
Laybourn stated that Cheyenne has established special traffic enforcement zones on Central and Warren avenues. Council members also approved a system Monday night to analyze traffic patterns in real time using GPS data from cell phones and other metrics.
The system will not identify individual users in real time, but the metadata will help highlight where the most egregious violations are occurring, allowing officers to be stationed in the most effective locations to make a difference in all of these “antisocial” driving behaviors.
Zero Tolerance For Speeding, Wheelies
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak told Cowboy State Daily the Sheriff’s Department will be teaming up to help Cheyenne Police Department on traffic enforcement issues. That includes additional patrols of Spiker garage.
“Our deputies are actually driving through the parking garage, like if they’re coming to the Sheriff’s office or leaving the Sheriff’s office,” according to Kozak. “And then we also started a traffic unit, a traffic enforcement team.”
Laramie County has assigned three deputies to that team, which will collaborate with the Police Department’s traffic unit on proactive speed and red light enforcement.
Two motorcycles have been donated to the Sheriff’s Office for those officers, Kozak said.
“It’s more effective if we work together as a team,” he told me. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
Kozak added that he has been receiving more complaints on Saturday nights about motorcycles racing up and down Warren and Central and popping wheelies.
“So, both the Sheriff’s Office and the city PD are also teaming up on that,” Kozak told the crowd. “For a high visible presence and really having a zero tolerance approach on that kind of reckless driving behavior.”
