Injured cyclist calls for more bike-friendly city
JASON WARICK Roy Cushway doesn’t remember much after flying off his bicycle and landing on the concrete sidewalk.
“I think there was a girl beside me asking me questions, maybe someone else directing traffic around me,” Cushway said.
The nearly fatal accident in May 2013 left Cushway with a broken pelvis and a host of other injuries. The 86-yearold competitive cyclist and judo black belt will likely never bike again. He’s unable to get around the block without the use of a walker.
He’s calling for city planners, developers and others to make Saskatoon a more bike-friendly place, and hopes his example can serve as a wake-up call.
“Make room for b i cycl e s . Right now it’s all about cars,” Cushway said in an interview from his Nutana-area condominium.
A city official agreed there is much more work to do, but said the number of cycling routes are expanding rapidly.
One wall of Cushway’s home is filled with family photos — canoeing the Churchill, cycling, hiking. A cork board is mounted on another wall and is covered with medals and awards from various competitions around the world.
On that sunny day last May, Cushway was preparing for the world masters cycling championships in Cleveland. He was returning from one of his regular 25-kilometre rides. Coming back into town on Clarence Avenue South, he got onto the overpass at Circle Drive.
As always, he’d taken all possible safety precautions — obeying traffic signals, wearing highly visible clothing and strapping on a solid helmet. Cushway even wrote all of his personal and medical information on a sheet inside his helmet.
“Most guys don’t do that one, but they should,” he said.
The Clarence and Circle Drive overpass is one of many scary and confusing places for cyclists, said Cushway and his son, Doug. It’s dangerous to bike on the busy overpass road, so Cushway rode on the sidewalk.
What he didn’t expect was a bike tire-sized groove in the concrete running in the direction of his movement. His tire was swallowed up, stopping the bike instantly and sending Cushway over the handlebars.
He’d spend the next four months in hospital recovering from a pelvis broken in three places, head wounds, nerve damage in his knee and back, and large swaths of skin ripped off by the impact. For a three-week period in July, Cushway experienced a form of “sundowning,” said his wife, Judy Lang-Cushway.
She’d stay at the hospital all day, while Doug and the other siblings took evening shifts at his bedside. Around suppertime each evening, “it was like his spirit left us,” Doug said.
Cushway had almost constant nightmares, believing someone was trying to kill him.
“It was a terrible experience,” Lang-Cushway said.
He’s now able to get around the block with his wife’s help, and can tolerate bits of stationary biking. But he’ll likely never race or even ride independently again.
“Sometimes I get angry, but sometimes I think it’s just the luck of the draw,” Cushway said.
The Cushways point to large cities like Montreal and small centres such as Comox and Courtenay, B.C., all of which have dedicated bike- or bike/bus-only lanes. They applaud an attempt to convert portions of downtown streets to cyclists, but lament the fact the program has been delayed and won’t happen this year.
Encouraging cycling would decrease air pollution, improve the health of city residents and save tax dollars currently dedicated to fixing roads worn down by thousands of automobiles, they say.
The City of Saskatoon’s general manager of community services, Randy Grauer, agrees with the need to make Saskatoon as friendly as possible for bikes, pedestrians and public transit. He said the current commuter transportation ratio of 90 per cent automobile and 10 per cent bike must change.
Changing that ratio is a central part of city planning, he said. This fall, the city will ask for new proposals to renew the vision for “active transportation” in the city.
“There’s a cultural transformation taking place,” Grauer said. “We’re moving in lockstep with the values of our community.”
He noted there are hundreds of kilometres of multiuse pathways and other cycling options.
“That will continue to be a priority,” he said.