Taking action

Many cities are taking action to support cyclists but it's difficult in parts of Atlantic Canada, where original city planners certainly didn’t have cycling in mind designing streets along crowded waterfronts.

City-dwellers tend to see more problems with cyclists than people in rural areas. For example, people in Halifax report quite a bit of conflict between cyclists and drivers in the city. And older Canadians tend to blame cyclists and take the driver’s side, while younger citizens, who might be more apt to bike, are split on which group to blame.

The death of a competitive cyclist in New Brunswick several years ago resulted in that province passing a one-metre rule, designed to encourage the safe sharing of highways by all users. Drivers are required to leave one metre of open space between their vehicle and the cyclist when driving beside or passing a cyclist. Similar laws exist in other Atlantic provinces.

In St. John’s, city hall has gone back to the drawing board in its attempts to provide bike lanes.

It’s obvious that cyclists face an uphill battle. We need public education on safety issues involving this cars vs. bikes debate. Motorists need to learn how to safely share the road, because many drivers clearly don’t know what to do when they encounter a cyclist.

Ultimately, we have to change the outmoded mindset that roads are for cars, not bicycles.

(This editorial was published July 6 in the Charlottetown Guardian, and distributed by The Canadian Press.)