Roads safer for cyclists, says Biggar
P.E.I.’s roads are safer for cyclists than they were five years, says Transportation Minister Paula Biggar.
Friday marked the fifth anniversary of Elizabeth Sovis’s death after a drunk driver struck and killed her with a van while she was cycling on a road near Hunter River.
Biggar said the legislature passed an amendment to the Highway Traffic Act in May that requires vehicles to stay at least one metre away from a bicycle when passing.
“Sharing the road,” she said.
After his wife’s death, Edmund Aunger said the road the couple was on was not safe for cyclists and had unpaved shoulders. Part of that road has since been widened with more work to come on it and other roads, Biggar said.
She also said the province is working with Cycling P.E.I. on an education program and has been developing biking trails.
Biggar said the province has strengthened its impaired driving legislation since Sovis’s death.
“If somebody’s drunk, no matter what regulations or laws or whatever you have in place is not going to prevent that,” she said. It takes a comprehensive approach to make roads safer for cyclists, Biggar said.
“One thing is not going to solve it all.”