To the editor:
Lorne Hayward in his letter ":Share the road equally", published Friday, May 11, perpetuates some misconceptions about cyclists and bicycles that need to be addressed.
For one, with all due respect to your driving instructor, Mr. Hayward, but bicycles are not restricted to "two feet of the paved surface on a paved road." Bicycles are vehicles under the Highway Traffic Act and therefore have the same rights and obligations as any other vehicle, motorized or otherwise.
As slow-moving vehicles under the Act, however, they are required to operate "as close as practicable to the edge of the roadway," consistent with safe operation of the vehicle.
This means, however, that a bicycle can take up as much of the roadway as the cyclist -- not some passing motorist -- believes is required for the safe operation of that vehicle, including right up to the centre line.
Second, cyclists, it is true, don't pay for road construction or maintenance via fuel and vehicle taxes. But, then again, bicycles don't damage roadways to the same extent that motorized vehicles do, nor do they pollute the air to same extent that motorized vehicles do. So why should they pay, other than through the usual tax channels (as, presumably, all adult cyclists do,) the same in taxes as do motorized vehicles?
Finally, the suggestion that cyclists carry mandatory insurance as do drivers of motorized vehicles is, if meant seriously, ridiculous. Drivers are required to carry insurance because of the staggering costs, to life and property, that would be run by victims should that driver have an accident. It is absurd to suggest that a cyclist careening off the road could cause anywhere near the sort of damage to persons or property that a car would. Indeed, the likely result of such an accident would be damage to the cyclist or the bicycle, not innocent bystanders nor their property.
Bike lanes make the roads safer for everyone, but only if they are used properly. Mr. Hayward is right to call attention the blatant disregard that many pedestrians, especially recreational runners, in Thunder Bay have to the requirement that they use the sidewalks where available. You're right, they should be ticketed where appropriate. But this is an issue about pedestrians, not about cyclists, and not about bicycle lanes.
D.A. Lariviere,
Thunder Bay
