Cyclists are a truly privileged group

Monna-Leigh McElveny has argued that cyclists on our roads are endangered because motorists are not adequately educated on the need to treat a cyclist as another driver of a vehicle, as mandated under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act. She concludes that adherence to these principles is the best guarantee for cyclist safety. Rather than creating more infrastructures, she would like to focus on educating cyclists to practise bike safety from a young age. Who could argue against that?

The problem, however, is that cyclists are a privileged group. While a person has to undergo formal training and pass strict tests over a period of years before earning the privilege of a driver’s licence, cyclists can take to the road without formal training and need display no identification.

A rule-breaking motorist can be identified ( by bystanders/police) and punished according to the law. But a cyclist who jumps a red light or knocks over an elderly pedestrian while speeding on a shared footpath can simply move on. Far too many cyclists have a halos on their heads as the “saviours” of the environment. While cyclists demand motorists be considerate of their space, they frequently fail to show the same consideration to pedestrian sand treat them as interlopers.

The absence of regulations unfairly tilts the balance in favour of cyclists and encourages scofflaws among them to misbehave. Law-abiding motorists are the sufferers; being the bigger of the two, the blame falls disproportionately on them.

If the law requires a bicycle be treated as another vehicle on the road, then, like drivers of other vehicles, cyclists must also undergo formal training and certification, and display identification like motorcycles and cars. Farrokh Kapadia, Ottawa.