[BRIEF NOTE] On Toronto's bicycle problem

[rfmcdonald]

John Spears' Toronto Star article "Nothing settled in bicycle wars" makes the point described in the article title. While better education for drivers is a must and better bike lanes is likewise very good where possible, I find myself increasingly annoyed with Yvonne Bambrick et al. for their opposition to the regulation of bicycles in Toronto: if bicycles are to become part of Toronto's official transportation strategies, shouldn't they (and their drivers) be regulated just as strictly as other vehicles and other drivers in Toronto?

In a city still stunned by the death of cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard, resulting in charges against former attorney-general Michael Bryant, the city's works committee discussed two proposals yesterday: That all cyclists be required to wear helmets, and all cyclists be licensed.

Both proposals had been made by Councillor Michael Walker before Sheppard's death.

The committee resolved nothing: Cycling advocates opposed both proposals, which were referred to city staff for review. But the debate traced continuing tensions among cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.

Jiang showed raw emotion as he recalled the death of his sister Cheng-Li Jiang, 56, struck by a 15-year-old cyclist on a sidewalk on Kennedy Rd. near Sheppard Ave. E. on Aug. 9. She died the next day, without regaining consciousness.

The boy on the bike was not charged. "Nobody was responsible for an innocent woman's death," her brother said. "I cannot speak without anger: A person's life is nothing. A Chinese-Canadian's life is worthless," he said.

Toronto councillors haven't paid enough attention to safety, he said. "Cheng-Li's tragedy should never happen again if council takes action now." He supported mandatory helmets and licences for cyclists as well as speed limits for bikes.

[. . .]

[Toronto city councillor] De Baeremaeker, who regularly cycles to work, recalled a passenger opening a taxi door in front of him on Dundas St. "I flew onto the asphalt, hit my head, headfirst onto the asphalt, and slid under a taxi cab. That helmet, I'm sure, saved me from very serious harm."

And Carroll spoke of how her husband hit an unseen obstacle on a bike path at night a dozen years ago, falling and knocking a hole in his helmet. Were it not for the helmet, "that would have been his brain – there's no question in my mind."

But Yvonne Bambrick, of the 800-member Toronto Cyclists Union, vocally opposed both proposals, saying they miss the point.

Helmets protect cyclists after they fall, she said: The objective should be to prevent collisions in the first place. "(Removing) the things that are happening to them, which I think is the responsibility of municipal and provincial government ... that's the issue," she said, calling for more and better bike lanes and better education for drivers.

I've had problems with motorized vehicles on streets where I've been biking, true, but those vehicles have been exceptional. The very large majority of motor vehicles I've encountered on the streets have been driven by responsible people who've taken care to drive responsibly. The same certainly can't be said of cyclists, who by and large seem happy to persist in behaviours--running red lights, biking in the opposite direction of traffic, biking on pedestrian laneways so as to avoid red lights, veering across lanes, et cetera--which would fill Toronto's streets with flaming wreckage if these behaviours were ever adopted in similarly regular fashion by drivers of motorized vehicles. Contra Bambrick, cyclists and bicycles need to be strictly regulated, for the good of everyone.