Life in the slower lane
There’s little doubt that bicycle use will grow in popularity for people trying to get around town. But safety in areas that mix motor vehicles and bikes is always the big concern.
There are plenty of situations with potential hazards, but one of them is getting some attention in Nova Scotia’s legislature. Pictou Centre’s Conservative MLA Pat Dunn is calling on the Liberal government to put a law in place that matches the ‘Dutch Reach’ law in the Netherlands, a measure to help prevent cyclists from being suddenly confronted by an opening car door.
That rule requires the drivers and passengers exiting a parked vehicle to unlatch the door with the hand opposite the door. The idea is it makes people turn their bodies toward the door, meaning greater likelihood they’ll notice if a cyclist is approaching from behind.
Dunn says it’s a law that could easily be enacted by the Liberal government. And having taught drivers education for a number of years, he describes it as commonsense practice.
It’s not hard to envision how this mishap could occur, the potential severe consequences for the cyclist and perhaps the driver, and how better attentiveness by the occupants of vehicles could reduce instances.
Such a safe driving practice as this is just one improvement that could be made to make cycling a safer mode of transportation in urban areas, particularly on more narrow streets with higher concentrations of traffic.
Like a lot of proposed laws, one response from people is to wonder about enforcement. This, not unlike laws against cellphone use while driving, would be fairly hard to enforce, since it’s not easy to observe the actions of occupants of a vehicle.
But, like the law aimed at cellphone use, difficulty to catch people and enforce the law is certainly not a reason to leave that law off the books. As is the case with many pieces of legislation, they’re in place to educate the public and encourage a pattern of thinking that’s more aware of hazards and what is going on in a person’s surroundings.
Having a law in place, having that point reinforced in driver education programs – as alluded to by Dunn – will help establish the message that honing skills of observation is always a benefit. A driver – most of them – is pretty careful about opening a car door if other vehicular traffic is approaching from behind. This rule just takes that caution a step further, to notice whether there’s a smaller, somewhat-harder-to-spot, vehicle.
Some urban areas across Canada are trying to keep pace with the increasing use of bicycles on the streets, establishing lanes where possible, and otherwise reinforcing rules to make the ride safer. The change, along with the redesigned infrastructure, is a bit slower to find its place in smaller towns characteristic of Nova Scotia. But with people increasingly wanting to lead healthier lifestyles and reduce the choke of gas-powered vehicles, this is a shift we need to encourage, welcome and become accustomed to.