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rfmcdonaldNews that Toronto may soon be cracking down on cyclists who ride on sidewalks pleases me at a deep, deep level.
I'm exceptionally fond of biking and look forward to getting a new bike come spring (not buying the bike, mind, but separate story). Perhaps I've a terribly high tolerance for danger, but I simply don't understand how--on most streets, in most circumstances, I add--cyclists are afraid enough of the roads to be so inconsiderate as to bike on the sidewalks intended for pedestrians. If you're afraid of the road, might I suggest that you don't travel on it? That's why I don't drive.
It's a simple thing: if cycling is going to be made an integral part of the transit strategies of Toronto, cycling and cyclists should be just as much subject to traffic regulations as every other vehicle and driver on the streets of this city. Reject that, and then you reject that idea. Either/or, people, either/or.
A Toronto city councillor wants the city to enforce a bylaw barring bicycles from the sidewalks.
Coun. Karen Stintz says there's already a bylaw on the books, but it's never enforced.
She says in her midtown ward she hears lots of complaints from pedestrians who are upset they have to battle for the sidewalk with cyclists.
"The bicycles go quite quickly," said Stintz, adding that this can be dangerous when the pedestrians are seniors or people with strollers.
"It does create an unsafe environment."
Many Torontonians have complained of near misses and minor collisions on city streets, she said.
Sister Mary Sibbald, a Toronto nun, likes the idea of cracking down.
"They are a menace sometimes on the sidewalk," she said of sidewalk cyclists. "They come behind you so quietly and so surreptitiously."
In 2009, a woman died after she struck her head on the pavement after being hit by a cyclist on the sidewalk.
Stintz says she wants to make sure police do more to enforce the existing bylaw, which states that only children riding bicycles with wheels under 24 inches are allowed on a sidewalk.
"The intent of this bylaw is to allow young children to cycle on the sidewalk while they learn to ride," says a notice on the city's website.
The fine for an adult riding on the sidewalk in downtown Toronto is $90. "Aggressive cyclists can also be charged with careless driving," the city says.
But the penalty varies across Toronto because the bylaw wasn't updated after amalgamation. Stintz wants the fines made equal across the city.
I'm exceptionally fond of biking and look forward to getting a new bike come spring (not buying the bike, mind, but separate story). Perhaps I've a terribly high tolerance for danger, but I simply don't understand how--on most streets, in most circumstances, I add--cyclists are afraid enough of the roads to be so inconsiderate as to bike on the sidewalks intended for pedestrians. If you're afraid of the road, might I suggest that you don't travel on it? That's why I don't drive.
It's a simple thing: if cycling is going to be made an integral part of the transit strategies of Toronto, cycling and cyclists should be just as much subject to traffic regulations as every other vehicle and driver on the streets of this city. Reject that, and then you reject that idea. Either/or, people, either/or.
