Cycling coalition offers up proposals

A coalition of cyclists is asking the provincial government to consider 30 recommendations it has put forward for the Nova Scotia Traffic Safety Act and the regulations that will accompany it.

The Halifax Cycling Coalition publicly released the recommendations last week — including 11 unaddressed proposals and 19 new proposals — for the TSA.

“At the core of our recommendations is trying to make it safer and more convenient for people to be able to ride their bikes and shift some of the regulatory burdens off of people who we sometimes call vulnerable road users, or basically anyone who’s not in a vehicle that’s kind of protecting them,” said coalition executive director

Meghan Doucette.

The recommendations come after the province asked for feedback from Nova Scotians to help develop the regulations that accompany the TSA last month. The public still has until Friday to provide feedback to the province.

The Halifax Cycling Coalition hosted two public engagement sessions alongside the Atlantic Active Alliance, the Ecology Action Centre, Walk n’ Roll Halifax and Bicycle Nova Scotia in order to come up with the list of recommendations.

UNADDRESSED PROPOSALS, REHASHED

The coalition’s unaddressed proposals date back to 2016, Doucette noted.

One of the longstanding recommendations calls for the passing distance to be increased to 1.5 metres on roads with speeds of more than 50 km/h when a person driving is passing a person cycling.

Currently, vehicles only need to keep one metre of distance when passing a cyclist.

“So for higher speed roads where you’re on a secondary highway, for example, and the speed limit might be 70 or 80 km/h, we would like to see that passing distance increased to 1.5 m, so that there’s a little bit more space for people who are cycling when vehicles are moving a lot more quickly,” said Doucette.

Another unaddressed proposal is the Idaho stop, which is the common name for a law that allows people cycling to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a red light as a stop sign.

Doucette said transportation officials, urban planners and law enforcement in

Idaho have found that allowing people to do this stop, while making sure there is no oncoming traffic, “increases the ease of cycling and hasn’t increased any risk or any increase of collision.”

To prevent “unnecessary hardship to marginalized individuals who rely on their bike as their primary mode of transportation,” the coalition is also rehashing a recommendation that law enforcement should not be permitted to seize a bike due to its rider not following traffic laws.

Seizing someone’s bike, Doucette said, could disproportionately disadvantage people who are living in poverty or are homeless.

“If their bike is taken from them from the police, they may be at risk of not getting to work or school or to an important appointment,” she added.

NEW PROPOSALS

One of the new proposals asks that cyclists be allowed to choose their cycling position “based on their comfort and safety and the road conditions.”

In other words, if a cyclist comes across a hazard like a crack in the pavement or debris that has accumulated, there might be reasons why a cyclist “might want to get out into the main traffic lane and we don't think people should be penalized for that,” explained Doucette.

The coalition is also asking for an update to the Nova Scotia Workplace Traffic Control Manual to require that where road work requires the closure of a designated bicycle lane, the organization carrying out the construction, maintenance or repair must provide a dedicated physically protected bike lane detour, with no exceptions.

ENCOURAGING PUBLIC TO SUBMIT FEEDBACK

Doucette said the Halifax

Cycling Coalition and its partners have long worked together “to make some requests of the province to make it safer for people to walk, ride their bikes and use other modes of transportation,” especially with climate change and environmental concerns at play.

While applauding the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal for the work that has been done to introduce a Traffic Safety Act to replace the outdated Motor Vehicle Act, Doucette said there “is a little bit more work to be done.”

“It's really important as a way to participate in our democracy to submit feedback when there's the opportunity,” said Doucette.

“And it's really something that affects everyone because we all get around, we all use different modes of transportation, … so it's something that touches our lives and it's really important to share any feedback if you have any.”

Nova Scotians can provide their feedback on the regulations to tsa@novascotia.ca.