To the editor:
When I started driving almost 30 years ago, my driving instructor informed me I needed to share the road sometimes -- not all the time because you may be alone on the roadway at some point and then at that point the road is all yours.
He told me that driving was a privilege and that I needed to respect my fellow motorists, some of them may be on horseback, some if you are in Amish country may be in a buggy and some may be on bikes, motorized or not.
He instructed me that non-motorized bikes were allowed two feet of the paved surface on a paved road. So why the debate? Have the laws changed so that bikes arent allowed on the roadway anymore unless they have their own lane?
What bothers me most is the misuse of these bike lanes. For example, every morning on my way to work the same woman is jogging in the bike lane. There is an empty sidewalk on both sides of Walsh Street for her and others to use.
Now that warmer weather is slowly arriving, when I pick up my kids from Westgate Collegiate, their fellow students use the bike lanes for skateboarding. I guess my question is, if I can get a ticket for misusing a bikelane with my vehicle as the police have stated, (e.g. stopping or moving into it to maneuver around another vehicle) does the skater kid get a ticket? Or the jogger?
They should because its misuse.
Furthermore I am being told to share the road with my vehicle because its the right thing to do. I don't see the cyclist sharing the costs of the road or even covering the costs of painting the lines for their lanes that I cant venture into with my vehicle that I pay for with my fuel and vehicle taxes.
There is no road-use tax when buying a bike and obviously no fuel to tax. Maybe the plan is to have the motorist fines pay the tab for this.
The right thing to do is make the cyclists licence their bikes (motorized or not) if they want to ride the roads and have insurance in case they happen to venture from their allotted space on the roadway and damage another's property. I do own a bike and I do ride it from time to time. A small licensing and insurance fee put towards making my existence safer when I ride my bike wouldnt be a big deal. I would gladly pay it. Isn't the old saying nobody rides for free?
Lorne Hayward,
Thunder Bay
