An interesting thing happened this morning. A representative of "Bicycle Kingston" was heard on FLY FM (and I presume other, lesser media outlets) explaining his group's stand on the city's plan to create more bike lanes here.
He's against it. In fact he and his group say the idea of building bike lanes is actually more dangerous than what we have now. They say the city could instead build wider curb lanes, that could be used by both cars and bikes. He says this would save us money to use on law enforcement and improving the general state of our roads. His main rationale is that bicycles are vehicles, which are entitled to the roadway as much as a motorized vehicle is...and that if both were to share the new wider roadway by following the basic rules of the road...all will be well. This is not some guy who comes by these theories easily either. He's had lots of experience in other cities (like Toronto), and he's passionate that he knows the right way to go on this.
March 25th, 2001. I was riding my beautiful white Cannondale road bike along Front Road here in Kingston. This is a stretch of street that has a well-marked bike lane most of the way. There is one small bridge over the Cataraqui Creek that has no bike lane marked on it though. That is where I was knocked off the road by a vehicle, driven by someone who perhaps could have been following the "basic rules of the road"...but wasn't. Smashed up my bike. Got a massive concussion, and missed a couple days of work.
Would a white line painted on the side of the road have saved me from all this? I can't answer that. The driver may have caught that in his peripheral vision (so hard to see though when you're busy trying to dial an important number on your cell), but then he probably should have seen the bright white Cannondale, complete with colourfully-dressed rider with a huge yellow and reflective silver back pack!!!
My point though is that the more we do to make it clear to drivers that a bicycle (or skateboard, or child) COULD be up ahead...the safer for everyone. What better way than to paint a brilliant white line along the side of the road? Sure there are morons who don't even see huge CARS in front of them when they drive. There is no hope for these people, other than that they'll die in firey crashes some day and make the roads safer for the rest of us.
Okay, that's a bit harsh, but maybe I'm feeling just a bit sensitive after having a group speak out for me and the rest of the people of Kingston who love to bike. Most of us are very very happy with our crappy little white lines and want nothing more than for the city of Kingston to paint them on every street. Driver education, law enforcement and road repairs...yeah, we need those too.
But I'll bet my life on that solid white line.
He's against it. In fact he and his group say the idea of building bike lanes is actually more dangerous than what we have now. They say the city could instead build wider curb lanes, that could be used by both cars and bikes. He says this would save us money to use on law enforcement and improving the general state of our roads. His main rationale is that bicycles are vehicles, which are entitled to the roadway as much as a motorized vehicle is...and that if both were to share the new wider roadway by following the basic rules of the road...all will be well. This is not some guy who comes by these theories easily either. He's had lots of experience in other cities (like Toronto), and he's passionate that he knows the right way to go on this.
March 25th, 2001. I was riding my beautiful white Cannondale road bike along Front Road here in Kingston. This is a stretch of street that has a well-marked bike lane most of the way. There is one small bridge over the Cataraqui Creek that has no bike lane marked on it though. That is where I was knocked off the road by a vehicle, driven by someone who perhaps could have been following the "basic rules of the road"...but wasn't. Smashed up my bike. Got a massive concussion, and missed a couple days of work.
Would a white line painted on the side of the road have saved me from all this? I can't answer that. The driver may have caught that in his peripheral vision (so hard to see though when you're busy trying to dial an important number on your cell), but then he probably should have seen the bright white Cannondale, complete with colourfully-dressed rider with a huge yellow and reflective silver back pack!!!
My point though is that the more we do to make it clear to drivers that a bicycle (or skateboard, or child) COULD be up ahead...the safer for everyone. What better way than to paint a brilliant white line along the side of the road? Sure there are morons who don't even see huge CARS in front of them when they drive. There is no hope for these people, other than that they'll die in firey crashes some day and make the roads safer for the rest of us.
Okay, that's a bit harsh, but maybe I'm feeling just a bit sensitive after having a group speak out for me and the rest of the people of Kingston who love to bike. Most of us are very very happy with our crappy little white lines and want nothing more than for the city of Kingston to paint them on every street. Driver education, law enforcement and road repairs...yeah, we need those too.
But I'll bet my life on that solid white line.
