You can tell I’m a fair weather cyclist by the fact that it’s May, and I’ve only been on a handful of rides this year.
I only ride for fun and exercise. The alternative – staring at a wall while riding an exercise bike indoors – is a lot less appealing.
On the other hand, I have never come close to being hit by a truck or car while riding a stationary bike.
This spring, the provincial government updated a number of transportation rules. This included regulations for self-driving cars, e-bike rules, and clarifying some rules for people using mobility devices.
The one that affects cyclists is a new passing requirement for drivers.
Drivers passing “vulnerable road users,” a category that includes cyclists, equestrians, wheelchair users and others who from time to time share the road with cars, must now be at least one full metre away when passing. That expands to 1.5 metres when the speed limit is above 50 km/h.
Drivers can be closer – half a metre – when there’s a separated and protected bike lane.
I’ve been lucky, in that I’ve never been hit by a car while riding. Never clipped by a mirror, never doored, never run into a right hook.
(Ask your cyclist friends if you don’t know what those perils are.)
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Part of this is the fact that I’m a purely recreational cyclist. I don’t seek out busy streets, and I don’t have to use them, as many people who rely on a bike do.
But even I have to venture across a four-lane major road just to get out of my neighbourhood and into a quiet rural area. So I have to trust the skill, attention, and goodwill of all the drivers going past me.
All I have between myself and a pickup truck with dual wheels, or a full-sized dump truck with a pup trailer, is a line of paint marking off the bike lane. Sometimes not even that.
So I’m cautious and careful. I use hand signals, I keep the blinking tail light on my bike charged, I wear a helmet and offensively bright cycling gear.
But it does occur to me from time to time that if a driver is drunk, or fiddling idly with their cellphone, I could be ground under a set of tires, and a new regulation on giving me some more distance won’t save me.
It would be nice if things were otherwise, but for a century we’ve been building roads to serve cars first. Refitting them with bike lanes, even separated, protected bike lanes, is better than nothing, but it’s not a lot better.
There’s a world where our transportation infrastructure is built to serve all users. Pedestrians, wheelchair users, parents with strollers, buses and trams and SkyTrain, delivery trucks, cyclists, and yes, private cars.
Actually building it, starting from what we have now, is likely the work of another century. Maybe 50 years, if we really put our minds to it.
I’d like to go for a bike ride in that world, someday.