Pedal versus metal
There is a growing divide across Atlantic Canada, and it has nothing to do with trade, federal transfers, electricity rates or political differences. It involves transportation, lifestyles, climate change and increasingly, highway safety.
It’s about the increasing friction between cyclists and motorists.
There is an entrenched mindset that cycling is largely a rural, seasonal event, with cyclists, mostly tourists, meander along quiet, wooded roads enjoying nature. If cyclists came into the city, they stayed along waterfronts, parks, boardwalks and quiet, residential neighbourhoods.
But it seems motorists and governments were unprepared for the invasion of urban cyclists.
Their numbers are growing amid general concerns over climate change, healthier lifestyles and parking issues. More cyclists mean additional issues for motorists, which in turn requires that governments take measures to deal with safety and access concerns.
The obvious dangers of cycling along busy, city streets have resulted in bike lanes and buffered corridors gaining popularity. An online survey done in March of 5,423 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum found that more than two-thirds of them say separated bike lanes are a good thing, but far fewer indicated they actually wanted to see them built in their cities. They fear loss of parking, loss of access by shoppers and increased traffic congestion.
There is a pronounced bike-lane divide. Plenty of Canadians are prepared to blame any accidents or issues on cyclists, saying cyclists often don’t follow the rules of the road. Others say too many drivers aren’t paying enough attention to bicycles on roads.
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 when 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 versus 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. Students who attended Cogmagun School from 1935-36, under instruction by teacher Olla Stewart, posed for a photo. They were, from left, back row: Gordon Sanford, Ada Thomas, Kay Reynolds, Donald Sanford, Aurora Reynolds, Dorothy Sanford, Lena Ross, and Herbert Sanford; middle row: Marjorie Sanford, Arthur Reynolds, Ervin Sanford, Ethel Ross, Barney Shaw, Harry Reynolds, and Jean Sanford; front row: Evelyn Reynolds, Cecil McKenzie, Clarence McKenzie, and Beatrice Sanford. Do you have a historic photo or postcard you’d like to share? Please email editor@hantsjournal.ca.
Writing about the old Halifax-Annapolis Road in the Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society some 50 years ago, Mrs. G. R. Evans points out errors that were made when it was “relocated and marked’ by officer cadets from CFB Cornwallis in 1967.
This was a commendable effort Evans wrote, but she doubted that even the best surveyors of the province “could now locate the whole course of the Halifax- Annapolis Road with any degree of accuracy.”
First of all, the road which was supposed to connect Halifax with Annapolis Royal was never completed. A sign posted by the cadets noting their achievement contained an error as well, Evans noted, which attributed the wrong person as the original surveyor.
The main purpose of the Halifax-Annapolis Road was to eliminate the supposedly more difficult and longer route to Annapolis Royal via the Annapolis Valley. The fact that a route through the Valley existed and an attempt was made provide an alternate route has led to all sorts of confusion between the old Halifax-Annapolis Road and a road known in various communities as the Canaan Road and the Nictaux Road. Despite the two names, this is one road, and it isn’t the old Halifax to Annapolis highway.
The confusion came perhaps be- cause a start had been made at Annapolis Royal on the Halifax-Annapolis Road. And adding to the confusion, records indicate that a road from Annapolis Royal had also been roughed out that leads to Nictaux.
On the origin of the Canaan Road, according to various records, settlement began in the 1790s in an area a few kilometres south of Kentville that originally was called New Canaan and later was referred to simply as Canaan. A map made in 1818 indicates that there was a road leading to New Canaan from the highway that ran from Halifax into Windsor and then into the Valley. The caption on the map reads: “Road from the Post Road to New Canaan.” The map also indicates there was a road leading from New Canaan running south to where it crossed the Gaspereau River and then headed towards Halifax. The caption here reads: “Road from New Canaan to Halifax.”
What isn’t well known is the existence of an old road running west from the lower part of the Gaspereau River. This road, which undoubtedly was a trail used for untold generations by the Mi’kmaq, runs through the Gaspereau River ravine and comes out on the New Ross Road near what is known locally as the “feather factory.”
In an article written in 1896, Edmond Cogswell refers to this as the military road, noting that it “seems to have been laid out far to the south on the slope of the hills and to have extended from near Fort Edward, Windsor, nearly to Annapolis. It was six rods wide and was chopped out for the whole distance but was never made, except for a small part of it near Wolfville.” Cogswell adds that he has come across this road south of Waterville several times in timber 30 or 40 feet high and “it is called there the Canaan Road.”
Traces of this old road can still be found after it crosses the New Ross Road and heads west across country. In White Rock, for example, pieces of the old road can still be seen on Joel Sheffield’s farm where it is known locally as “the cart road.” Some sections of the road have been incorporated into walking trails and the tendency is to refer to these sections as part of the Nictaux Road. However, the deeds of many farms along the slope of the South Mountain refer to the Canaan Road as being the southern — and legal — boundary.
So which is proper use — Canaan Road or Nictaux Road? At the eastern edge of Kings County it starts out as the Canaan Road; inland, near Gaspereau Lake, Sunken Lake and the Miner Meadow area, it’s usually referred to as the Nictaux Road; then farther west, along the crest of the South Mountain, south of Morristown, Factorydale and Harmony, it becomes the Canaan Road again, at least on legal papers and community lore.
It appears that “Canaan Road” is the correct usage, to answer my question. But call it what you will, it’s an interesting old trail/road with a history that’s never been fully written. I believe it started as a Mi’kmaq trail centuries ago and later was put to use by the military before being abandoned. That’s my guess and there’s enough information recorded in numerous community histories to support this view.