Advocacy & Safety - Finally...a balanced article re: friction between cars and cyclists

I live in the heart of "redneck country" where cowboys and pickups outnumber cyclists 10-1 so you can imagine my shock and surprise to read the following article www.canoe.ca/Columnists/clancy.html titled 'Mean Streets, Run-ins generate friction between drivers and cyclists'.

At first glance I thought, oh yeah another rant against cyclists to fuel the already growing anti-bike sentiment in this city, but, once I started reading it my tune quickly changed. Finally! A columnist who had the courage to write the truth in a balanced and fair way! Yes the writer does give mention to those dough heads out there that give all cyclists a bad name but the gist of the article is to inform anyone reading it that cyclists have as much right to the road as any car.

I commend this guy for putting pen to paper on this one because I'm pretty certain he'll be getting more hate mail on this than kudos...unfortunately.

And I also have to say, I'm pretty proud to live in a city that has a police mountain bike unit that is proactive in educating the public (both drivers and cyclists) on my right to ride a bike down any damn street I please! :beer:

Agreed, a well balanced article.

"People get a little complacent on their bikes and forget they have to obey the rules of the road just like motorists do.

"Unfortunately, the motorists forget they have to share the road with the bicycles, too."

Isn't that the truth! Thanks for posting this...

Write to him with heaps of praise (but don't gush unnecessarily). Get your friends and cycling cohorts to do the same, from as far afield as need be, and all individually. In my experience, a couple of truly positive letters or emails does more than silence to counteract the nasty stuff sent by the misinformed. It works wonders in politics, too.

R

Roy Clancy seems to be listening to cyclists. He appears to be listening to both sides and trying to breech the gap.

I can't get the link to work, but the portion quoted above makes me glad someone has finally given up on the trolling most media types do and actually written a sensible article. He should be commended.

Here ya go Chris and others you can't make it go.

Mean streets
By ROY CLANCY -- Calgary Sun
A deadly dance has begun again on our overloaded city streets.

It's as much a sign of summer as Stampede banners flapping in the wind.

On the letters page of the Sun, bicycle riders and motorists trade insults and urge each other to clean up their act.

On the streets, the same dialogue is repeated over and over, though in far less polite terms.

But out where the rubber meets the road, the stakes are greater -- in some cases, life and death. In a run-in between a bicycle and a car, a cyclist is fortunate if all he or she winds up with is hurt feelings.

Unfortunately, it is a scenario that repeats itself every year, says Const. Mike O'Connor.

"The cyclists are gone for six or seven months and then they come back," says O'Connor, of the traffic education unit.

"People get a little complacent on their bikes and forget they have to obey the rules of the road just like motorists do.

"Unfortunately, the motorists forget they have to share the road with the bicycles, too."

O'Connor says the key to avoiding run-ins between bicyclists and motorists lies with common sense -- which, "unfortunately isn't so common."

The percentage of bicycle commuters is doubling every five years, according to one study, prompted no doubt by the city's clogged arteries and superb bike paths -- and helped along by the fitness boom.

This is a good thing. It eases the strain on roads, public transit and parking -- and boosts the cyclists' health and wealth.

Unfortunately, many drivers, holed up as they are in their tinted-windowed, metal cocoons, don't see it that way. To them, the cyclist represents an aberration in the normal scheme of rush-hour traffic.

Highly manoeuvrable and slim-of-profile, the bicycle nimbly glides past long lines of stopped vehicles. Then later, the same cars often have to slow or change lanes to move around the cyclist.

The aggravation this causes is out of proportion to the time lost -- usually just a few seconds. Serious cycle commuters have to put up with horn blasts, profanities and drivers who try to squeeze them into curbs and parked cars.

Not that the rap should be placed entirely at the gas pedal of the harried motorist.

Many of these cycle commuters, lulled into complacency by years of gliding along Cal-gary's peaceful pathways, display an ignorance of road safety that would make elementary children roll their eyes.

Let's ignore for a minute the downtown cycle couriers, who live by rules of their own -- obviously as lured by defying death as they are by the money they make delivering documents in the city core. Let's also leave out responsible cyclists who don't attract notice.

A certain breed of two-wheeled idiot -- perhaps plagued by too-tight bike shorts -- runs red lights, rides on crowded sidewalks and cruises dark roads without a light.

In fact, they command attention way out of proportion to their numbers.

"Most cyclists behave in a professional manner," says Sgt. Kevin DeVillenfagne, who leads the police mountain bike team. "It's a very few that cause the problems."

On the other side of the line, while motorists are generally conditioned to watch for other motorists and pedestrians, they're not so used to watching for cyclists, he says.

Even members of his own bike squad aren't immune to being victimized by this driver inattention. "Occasionally, one of our guys will get bumped off a bike, or have to take evasive action, or lay a bike down," DeVillenfagne says.

"One of the things we teach our cyclists is to learn to be paranoid -- to try and anticipate or try to outthink what drivers might do."

DeVillenfagne says it's up to riders to plan their routes and make wise choices to avoid finding themselves stuck in an unsafe situation.

But the other big piece of the puzzle is "motorists must understand that cyclists have a right to be on the road," he says.

"Cyclists do not have to go to the bike path. They are as entitled as a vehicle to be on the road."

That's a sentiment echoed by Patrick Lichowit, who volunteers with Canbike, a group that advocates and teaches safe cycling in Calgary.

"Motorists tend to look at cyclists as somebody out for a joyride," he says. "But most of the people who commute downtown on bikes are just going to work like everybody else. If motorists were to treat them as such, there would be a lot less friction."

After all, when a bicycle comes into contact with two tons of hot steel, that friction can be painful -- even lethal.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letters to the editor should be sent to callet@sunpub.com.
Clancy can be reached at 250-4235

This is one example of some good media (it is out there)

"Most cyclists behave in a professional manner," says Sgt. Kevin DeVillenfagne, who leads the police mountain bike team. "It's a very few that cause the problems."

This reminds me of a quote in our paper from the Vancouver police, "we have a problem with pedestrians but we don't have a problem with cyclists"

So it makes you wonder why there is all the other garbage that gets written and yelled our way (even when we are riding along in a responsible manner)?

it's good to see some unbiased reportage on a problem that will continue to grow with the number of bike commuters.

He made a very good point. I think a lot of accidents happen because drivers tend to look for pedestrians and cars, but not cyclists. And after the winter, cars are not accustomed to seeing bikes on the road, and then they sort of forget all about them, and then they have to get used to them again! ANd yes, bikes have every right to be on the road.

However, I should point out that so far this season I haven't seen one accident involving a car and a bike, but I've seen three accidents with roller bladers and skateboarders. ONe involved a car, but wasn't serious. The other two hit their heads and were unconscious. For all the talk about cycling being so dangerous! Of course, roller bladers and skateboarders don't tend to wear head protection. But you still don't hear drivers complaining about them!

Good material.

Originally posted by Rowan
Write to him with heaps of praise (but don't gush unnecessarily). Get your friends and cycling cohorts to do the same, from as far afield as need be, and all individually. In my experience, a couple of truly positive letters or emails does more than silence to counteract the nasty stuff sent by the misinformed. It works wonders in politics, too.
R

Thanks for the suggestion. Just wanted to pass along that I had indeed emailed the author of the article (Roy Clancy) and thanked him for writing (IMO) a balanced and fair article on the perils of bike commuting. He responded to my email today asking permission to run my response to him as a letter to the editor, so I guess I'll be seeing my name in print sometime soon.

:)

Make sure you post that when it appears. I'm sure we'd all love to see it.