Can’t we all just get along on roads?
Re Road rage has left us stuck in traffic, July 26 I expect to be killed by a drunk or distracted driver (is there really any difference?) almost every day during the warmweather months. Over the past 11 years, I have ridden my bicycle an average of 11,000 kilometres and the fact that I am still alive is almost a miracle given the frequency of near-death experiences I have almost daily.
What I fail to grasp is why the penalties for infractions that lead to deaths are so light. Why isn’t the fine for a first drunk or distracted driving offence $10,000? Why not add in a five-year driving ban? Who would complain about such a proposal? Who has the political clout to argue that we are being too hard on people who kill?
Why are our politicians such cowards that they can’t step up and protect us? The impunity with which people choose to put my life at risk is inexcusable. Add in the general lack of driving skills on display and survival becomes a goal to aim for daily.
Pedestrians and cyclists are soft-shelled creatures in a hardshelled world. As we evolve toward a greener future, we nonmotorists are becoming a more prominent feature of the urban street scene.
We need our leaders to recognize that we are a large part of their constituencies and give us the attention we deserve. Failure to do so will eventually have political consequences that are easily avoided. Irwin Nayer, vice-chairman, Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee I bike about 80 to 100 kilometres per week on the Martin Goodman Trail paths from Spadina Ave. to Mimico and it is an education about how to create an accident.
We don’t need bikes licensed. We need cyclists to have some common sense and road etiquette. The following “to-dos” infer what craziness I see every day: 1. At least one hand on the handle bars near other riders, especially when you have a baby on board. 2. Cellphones in pockets and eyes on the bike path. 3. Take a look and call out “passing left” (or some facsimile) when passing or changing lanes. A bell actually makes pedestrians jumpy.
4. Arm signal when going left or right at a fork or leaving the path.
5. Stop at stop signs and red traffic/bike lights. Very few riders do. It’s simply faster and easier to blow through.
6. Slow down when you approach a crowd of bikes and pedestrians, not accelerate through. Especially the guys doing 40 km/h.
If everyone followed these suggestions, there wouldn’t be so many accidents waiting to happen. Mike Faye, Toronto Bicycle riders say, “Share the road.” It sounds reasonable. Sharing is a common trait among people — share our food with those in need, share our time by volunteering and share our wealth by charitable giving.
It is in our nature to share, most often when we have more than we need ourselves. Sharing sounds nice and makes us feel good.
Roads? We haven’t made any new ones in Toronto for many years. Decades, actually. And, to be blunt, it is not sharing when something is taken by force. Words like usurp, commandeer, confiscate and expropriate come to mind for bike lanes carved out of existing roads. Sharing is a euphemism for seizing.
Bicycle riding is never going to be other than a pursuit by a small minority of our populace. The city needs to look much harder for off-road, and off-sidewalk, solutions for bicycle riders rather than simply bullying motorized vehicle drivers. David Kister, Toronto We are all in this together: driver, pedestrian and cyclist.
Too many drivers are making a right turn on a red light, while checking to their left, but not their right. Thereby possibly clipping/or worse a pedestrian or cyclist, who is rightfully crossing on a green/walk sign.
Pedestrians are darting across intersections — many of them wide — when the walk sign is long gone, and the “countdown” is close to the end, not only endangering their lives but adding to the vehicular congestion.
I see cyclists bike across the street in one direction, legitimately, but then quickly continue on a red light in the other direction, if they feel they can beat the approaching vehicles.
These are just a few examples, showing how all of us are daily at fault, whether we are driving, on foot or on a bike. We all need to smarten up, and start looking after one another. Mary Morrison, Mississauga I have very little sympathy for Star reporter Laura Beeston as she navigates the streets of Toronto on her bicycle. She is attired in dark, probably black, clothing, black helmet and a black bicycle, which appears sans reflector at the rear and without a light at the front.
She would be virtually indistinguishable from buildings and traffic without a high-visibility vest or reflective clothing that motorists and pedestrians can see to avoid her as she travels our congested roadways.
The automobile is not going away; cyclists have to adjust their dress code while cycling. Chris Powell, West Hill