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Hornby bike lane trial approved, engineering would like to see it tested for “four seasons”

October 6th, 2010 · 91 Comments

The debate and speechifying finally wrapped up at 11:38 last night and, to no one’s surprise, the Hornby bike-lane “trial” was approved — unanimously, with even NPA Councillor Suzanne Anton voting in favour, though expressing concern about the process and the snippy remarks some councillors made that she felt trivialized business concerns.

(And much debate already about Councillor Andrea Reimer’s tweet during the public presentatiions (“Let the theatrics begin – Can Fed of Small Biz makes emotional appeal: vote for bike lane is a vote against biz, seniors & disabled.”)

Get used to this bike lane, people, because I think this is the kind of move that becomes very hard to go back on by any council. Any attempt to dismantle it will be portrayed by bike advocates and the general media as Vancouver putting its lips up to an SUV muffler to inhale exhaust.

One result of the numerous concerns expressed by business is that both staff and councillors will be hyper-alert to any signs of dissatisfaction. The mayor said last night that everyone needs to pay attention to the “feedback loop.” But I’m waiting to see what kind of attention is paid. Many supporters said that businesses should welcome the lane, that it will bring new kinds of business opportunities, that cyclists are increasingly buying the European-style commuters bikes with baskets, signalling the arrival of the cycling shopper, and so on.

So if a business says it’s not doing well, will there truly be sympathy or will that business be blamed for not having leaped into a grand opportunity to market to the cycling set?

By the way, although the trial is officially designated to last for six months, a somewhat exhausted-sounding Jerry Dobrovolny, the city engineer who has been responsible for carrying out the VV’s aggressive bike agenda, said it would be preferable to have the trial extend over four seasons to see what the impacts are at different times of the year.

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  • Richard

    @Bill McCreery

    Books can also be written about endless planning processes that over analyse issues to death without leading to action or better decisions. It is a $3 million bike lane, not a $3 billion dollar highway or rapid transit line. There is no evidence from any other city in the world that bike lanes have negative impacts. Why study it to death here?

    I suggest not writing a book. I expect it would not make it to the Amazon top 10 or even top 10 million.

  • Agustin

    @ Dave, #43. “For being green, precious little attention is paid to the back ups on 4th, pacific, the viaduct amongst other during peak periods.”

    I see lots of attention being paid to these problems. The City (and Translink) are both trying to reduce the car’s modal share, thereby reducing congestion.

  • Morven

    @ Michael Watkins # 42

    There will be few instant bankruptcies because that is not how the system works. What may or may not transpire, is thinning margins for franchise operators, companies going with reduced or non-existent profit margins but for some other companies, fattened margins.

    If you were a really innovative council, you might consider a property tax rebate for affected businesses for the period of the trial until the evidence was in. At least then, you would not be accused of being an agent of the bicycle lobby.

    But innovation does not seem to be a strong suit at city hall.
    -30-

  • spartikus

    But innovation does not seem to be a strong suit at city hall.

    And here I thought the criticism was they were putting through too many innovative things at once. Sigh.

    Pick one angle. Stick with it.

  • Richard

    @Morven
    Council approved the bike lanes because the majority of people in Vancouver want the bike lanes and they promised them during the election. It is only a vocal minority that opposes them.

  • Joe Just Joe

    Not that it matters as we already knew this would be the case. But this morning I was hand delivered at my workplace a letter from engineering services dated today and discussing the outcome of last nights meeting and the upcoming construction process which is expected to take 10wk weather dependant. While completely possibly, it appears unlikely that they would’ve run off colour copies double sided first thing this morning as the matter wasn’t approved until almost midnight last night and have someone available to deliver them. If that is the case then the eng dept is certainly more organized then they used to be.

  • Tom

    IanS @37

    I was merely making a point to Frances.

    You’re wasting your time coming to this site and getting in a free for all with the socialist loons like spartikissy and the bike activists.

    Frances’s assertion that no future council dare take out the lanes without being percieved as sucking the fumes from an SUV is just her usual bias, which she tries to deny, coming forward. She’s been around far too long to offer up this type of statement.

    I know she’s not stupid, or niave, so for her to offer this type of a statement speaks to her ideological beliefs. It would be nice if she would just be honest about it already instead of hiding behind the “non-partisan” journalist label.

    My other point was that there are perfectly plausible reasons to remove the lanes in the future and it will be done, regardless of what Frances has already written in her journals, anticipating the day when someone comes forward to do exactly this.

    As for you, if you choose to come on here and debate the merits of bike lanes with diametrically opposed people, go for it but don’t suggest my comment was unhelpful…when you clearly misunderstood the intended purpose.

  • Jason King

    As I have stated from the get go, my biggest issue with the bike lanes has really been the way Vision handles everything….with a mixture of arrogance, indignation, and with no intention of listening to anyone but themselves. Last night appeared to be yet another example of this, and the fact that the signs are up first thing this morning, and the pamphlets are being handed out to businesses, suggests that there was no “debate’ to be had last night, it was all a foregone conclusion…which makes you wonder why they wasted anyone’s time putting on last nights “show”.

    I also find it disingenuous to state after the fact that the 6 month trial was never intended to be 6 month trial….I stated all along that they never intended for this to be a 6 month trial, but it blows me away that they came out THE DAY AFTER THE VOTE and stated this to be the case.

    I honestly hope that the bike lanes prove to be a big success, and that businesses on Horby don’t lose a dime….because the taxpayers will be the biggest losers if this all goes to pot, and as a taxpayer, I REALLY don’t want to see that happen.

  • Bill McCreery

    @ JK 55. Your “last nights show” was probably what Ms Reimer was referring to in her “Let the theatrics begin….” twit. Darn, I should have known this was a setup.

  • Frances Bula

    @ Tom. I made the statement that it’s going to be difficult for future councils to go back on because of my experience looking at what happens with policy from all kinds of political groups over the years. What I’ve seen and what people who’ve been around longer than me have observed is that once a policy or an initiative gets instituted and accepted as the status quo, it’s hard for future governments to reverse that unless there’s an utter disaster. The NDP have said they’d be unlikely to reverse the HST if they got in. The NDP instituted ICBC and the Agricultural Land Reserve, controversial at the time, and the Socred and Liberal governments have declined to eliminate those institutions, even though there have been a few feeble efforts to bring the topic up. The NPA started a process several years ago of shifting taxes from business to residential and now Vision has continued that because not doing it leaves them open to the charge that they’re anti-business. Et cetera.

    If 50 per cent of the businesses on Hornby failed, a future NPA council would reverse it. But on the assumption that that doesn’t happen — and even the business groups have so far had any examples of that kind of impact anywhere else — no, I don’t see it changing. Suzanne Anton voted in favour of it, after all.

  • Frances Bula

    @ Joe 3. And, you might have missed from a previous post, the signs advising that construction would be starting soon were already up yesterday, before the council vote

  • Aiden

    @Richard, 3 million is 3 million, and during a time of deep cuts to everything including the closure of a Firehall, maybe a book on recognizing and determining priorities would be a good write (and read for a cerain set of Councillors). Using public money to push through the implementation of ones personal ideas is worth some public consultation. I’m not sure the issue is so much about bike lanes and if they are good or not, as much as it is about appropriate (or questionable) timing. Maybe Council and the Mayor avoids consultation because the feedback won’t support their plans. The Mayor let the cat out of the bag in China — when he openly admired how a dictatorship can create change faster than our democracy can. Dictators don’t consult either. In fact I wonder if they will still allow us to vote next year. As Geoff Meggs was quoted –the last election was the consultation, so maybe our city was only entitled to that one session.

  • spartikus

    Which Firehall is being closed?

  • SV

    I’m not sure money from the capital plan can be moved to cover other things? Or can it?

  • Richard

    @Aiden
    There has been plenty of public consultation. There were 2 open houses, a survey on the web site and a web based forum. Feedback forms were mailed out to businesses and residents near Hornby, there was a survey of people along Hornby and anyone could have spoken to council yesterday. In addition, city staff met individually with businesses along Hornby and resolved many of the issues.

    An independent survey covered by Frances showed that 48% of Vancouver residents supported the Hornby Bike Lane while only 1/3 were opposed.

    Clearly, bike lanes and paths are a priority for many of the people of Vancouver. I expect that is why they elected a mayor and council who strongly support cycling.

  • Bill McCreery

    Someone above has no doubt said it but, it’s worth repeating. More Vision &, unfortunately, staff doublespeak, as I understand it has been said by both. We were told last night that it was a SIX MONTH TRIAL. 18 hours later it’s become a TWELVE MONTH TRIAL. Doesn’t Council have to approve this?

    & speaking of master’s of doublespeak, when I paraphrased a quote 2 last night’s Council from a Courier article about Mr. Meggs listing the 3 things they would be studying during the ‘trial’ as being ‘1] counting bikes, 2] counting bikes differently &, 3] counting bikes yet another way with no mention of assessing what the impact would be on businesses he berated me for not having read the Council report, which I had. He pointed out the Council report said staff would be conducting some kind of business assessment. My point was that Mr. Meggs was not quoted as saying anything about said assessment in the article. What people don’t say sometimes speaks loudly &, in this case it appears to reveal once more that he doesn’t care a fig about the impact on business.

    Isn’t this another link in the Vision chain of deception, lack of candor & arrogance? Another being today’s 7.30 am start of work on the lanes charade. Nobody involved in deceptions like that has clean hands.

  • Bill McCreery

    And, by the way further to my comment 59 above Councillor Anton has withdrawn her support for the Hornby Bike Lane as of 8 pm tonight. No doubt the full text of her press release will be forthcoming so I will spare you here.

  • Aiden

    Media quote:
    “We haven’t confirmed that yet, as [city manager Penny Ballem] is just starting to propose her budget for next year … but $4 million equates to a firehall,” Ditchburn said. “$4 million is 40 jobs.”

    So with cuts of $4 million to fire services, we have to question why bike lanes at this time is a priority.

    Interestingly, if you ask for a traffic count at your local intersection or for any other civic work to be done in your neighbourhood, you are told crews are scheduled months in advance, they can’t just respond right away. Yet amazingly, overnight work started on Hornby. I guess Gregor’s right, a dictatorship can get things done more quickly.

  • Aiden

    Here is Anton’s Release, I found it on City Caucus.

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 6, 2010

    STATEMENT FROM NPA CITY COUNCILLOR SUZANNE ANTON

    “No one who spoke to council on Tuesday expected to be a part of a Kangeroo council,” says Coun. Anton

    “On Tuesday night at 11:38pm city council once again held a vote at the end of a marathon meeting that suited the agenda of the Mayor and his caucus more than it did Vancouver citizens, small business owners, or City staff.

    “When the meeting concluded I was satisfied that two of my biggest concerns about the Hornby Street bike lane project were met. First, I was assured by the City’s Engineering Department that the design of the separated bike lane was the absolute best of all available options for Downtown Vancouver. Second, thanks to my amendment of the motion I understood that every best effort would be taken by the City to mitigate the impacts of this development upon Hornby Street residents, businesses and their customers.

    “However, earlier today I discovered that a critical requirement of my support has not been met. I’ve learned that at 7:30am on the morning after council’s decision, crews and equipment began immediate work on the new Hornby Street bike lane. It’s clear to me from prepared signage and work plans that logistics for this project were not done overnight, and that staff was given direction to undertake this work weeks ago. Furthermore, I’ve learned that the road had already been marked in preparation for the work as early as Monday, a full day before the public meeting took place.

    “Regardless of your views on the Hornby Street separated bike lane, no one who spoke to council on Tuesday expected to be a part of a Kangeroo council. It is a fundamental trust between citizens and their elected representatives that when we meet in council chambers that we are there to listen, deliberate and debate, and finally decide based upon the inputs we have received.

    “It is crystal clear to me now that Tuesday’s council meeting was a mere formality, and pure political theatre. Businesses on Hornby Street cannot have faith that their concerns will be properly considered, nor can they have faith that this is a ‘trial’ project.

    “I am therefore submitting a motion to rescind to the City Clerk, and withdrawing my support of this project. I will also request a full report from staff that explains how these preparations had been completed in time to stage work the morning after our vote.

    “Thanks to the STIR projects, HEAT Shelters, and now this bike lane, Mayor Robertson and his colleagues have a well-earned reputation for being autocratic. With my decision I am hoping to send a clear message to council that we must listen to the people who elected us.”

  • Tiktaalik

    It was noted prior that installing a single advance left turn on Knight street is costing over $3 million.

    Have perspective with the numbers.

  • Tiktaalik

    Apparently city staff aren’t expected to be able to get stuff done immediately and aren’t expected to have immediate contingency plans for a “go ahead” or “cancel” situation?

    Ok.

  • Frances Bula

    @ Aiden. Thanks for posting Suzanne’s release. I saw it on my BB but didn’t have access to my computer to post it.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    “We were told last night that it was a SIX MONTH TRIAL. 18 hours later it’s become a TWELVE MONTH TRIAL. ”

    That’s an utterly incorrect statement. During discussion of the plan City staff said they would prefer a 12 month trial that’s all. As Frances’ article makes clear IN THE HEADLINE. THE SPIN FROM FACTS TO FICTION IS MAKING ME DIZZY.

  • Bill McCreery

    @ CK 73. Thought you had work to do or something.

    So I wasn’t @ Council to hear the word from staff, but, does it matter? For the last how many months it’s been a 6 month trial. Suddenly, as the vote is to be taken the 12 month flag goes up & gosh darn, Gregsey or Meggsey were talking about it @ 1st light the AM on the waves. Does this have any resemblance to the prepainted markers on Hornby & the 07.30 start this morning by Engineering work crews?

    You go to work, I’m going to bed.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    “Apparently city staff aren’t expected to be able to get stuff done immediately and aren’t expected to have immediate contingency plans for a “go ahead” or “cancel” situation?’

    I guess we are all supposed to ignore the stories in the local media prior to the vote that stated quite plainly that if approved the project would begin immediately.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    Turns out it’s a full-time job countering your incorrect and misleading comments Bill.

  • Jason King

    Chris:

    “I guess we are all supposed to ignore the stories in the local media prior to the vote that stated quite plainly that if approved the project would begin immediately.”

    So are you calling Anton a liar then? All of us sitting here speculating and “assuming” that this was a kangaroo court, that the plans were made long ago, that no one was really listening…I would admit that’s speculation. But when a member of council requests to take back her vote because because she sees the same thing from inside city hall, I’d say that moves it well beyond speculation.

    Chris, the bike lanes are moving ahead, you got what you want and time will tell whether they are a success or a failure (and again, I state, I very much hope they are a success)…but at the very least call a spade a spade and acknowledge that this mayor/council aren’t really listening to anyone.

    “There has been plenty of public consultation. There were 2 open houses, a survey on the web site and a web based forum.”

    Richard, anyone who calls the 2 open houses “consultation” really doesn’t know what the meaning of the word is. I went to the open houses…it’s was a marketing campaign for bike lanes…even the questionnaire at the open houses were filled with loaded questions. The entire thing was promotion of one point of view…nothing more.

    And for consultation to even exist, both sides have to be listening. And I think this mayor/council have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they never had any interest in listening to anyone that wasn’t lock step with their point of view.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    “So are you calling Anton a liar then? ”

    I’m saying that there are stories in the local media that plainly say that work would begin right away if the plan was approved. How does that statement call Ms. Anton’s truthfulness into question?

  • Jason King

    Chris you truly are the master of implying something and then denying you were actually suggesting it….

    Ms. Anton states very clearly that from everything she saw inside of city hall today, the entire production last night was for show…nothing more. Your comment about the local media stories was clearly implying that this was not the case, and that city hall was just prepared to move forward immediately.

    How about this, lets make it crystal clear….do you believe, as Ms. Anton clearly does, that city hall never had any intention of voting any other way than for the bike lanes, and therefore last night was a sham, or do you believe that city council came to the meeting last night with their minds open to all points of view and were willing to consider alternatives? I realize you have no way of knowing the truth, I’m asking what you believe to be the case based on the fact that the flyers were out and signs were up within 10 hours of last nights vote, and the statements made by Ms. Antons in her press release.

    Just trying to remove the ambiguity Chris.

  • spartikus

    do you believe, as Ms. Anton clearly does, that city hall never had any intention of voting any other way than for the bike lanes

    Do you believe, Jason, that political parties in democratic votes never have any idea how each and every vote will turn out?

  • Jason King

    “Do you believe, Jason, that political parties in democratic votes never have any idea how each and every vote will turn out?”

    Spartikus….that’s actually a very different question than the one at hand. But to humor you, the answer would be no. Political parties MORE OFTEN THAN NOT go into a vote fairly certain of the way 99% of their party is going to vote….that’s why they have party whips, etc.

    The difference here is that they don’t generally hold “mock” consultation, pretending to care what people have to say, pretending that anything they say could have an affect, knowing full well that they never had any intention of voting any other way. So the question was whether you believe that this was the case (as Ms. Anton clearly does), or do you believe that the engineering department stayed up all night drinking red bull for the first time ever, and were magically able to have flyers out and signage up within 10 hours of the vote.

  • spartikus

    The difference here is that they don’t generally hold “mock” consultation

    Well, we’re going to have to disagree on how sincere the consultation was.

    Laura Jones’s poll is so full of holes you could drive a truck through it.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    “do you believe, as Ms. Anton clearly does, that city hall never had any intention of voting any other way than for the bike lanes, and therefore last night was a sham, or do you believe that city council came to the meeting last night with their minds open to all points of view and were willing to consider alternatives?”

    I believe the council, including Anton, came to the council meeting in support of the plan, and finding no compelling reasons to change their mind, went ahead and voted according to the facts they had reviewed in the lead-up to the actual vote. I would be most disappointed to find out that they hadn’t done enough homework to have a sense of their position before the time came to make a decision.

    This tempest in a teapot is akin to demanding to cancel a wedding because you find out your fiancee was buying bridal magazines before you got down on bended knee, but after you’d been discussing how many kids you were going to have.

  • Jason King

    Chris, you’re a smart guy, you know that I’m in no way suggesting that the bike lane vote should be “canceled”. This has nothing to do with bike lanes at this point and everything to do with whether this city council is moving forward on decisions before votes are even cast.

    I have been saying for months that this city council has no interest in consultation, or even alternate points of view. They have an ideologically driven agenda that they are going to push through regardless of any information provided, because they feel they “know better” than the rest of us. Arrogance is the label, and I think this is one more example of it.

    And I guess as long as you feel it’s ok to implement programs BEFORE they are even voted on, then I guess this is a “tempest in a teapot”….mind you, it’s not exactly democratic….but why worry about a little thing like that.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    @Jason

    There was nothing undemocratic about this. There has been ample opportunity to speak to the issues, tell Council what you think, and prepare suggestions for alterations. In fact, all three of those things have happened and been responded to by the Council. The reality is that the only compelling facts and statistics throughout the debates over all three separate lane trials have shown why they are a good idea.

    Based upon that evidence and past outcomes it comes as no surprise to me that staff might be ready to go before the final vote. After all, if they read the local papers and blogs critical of Vision, they’d be quite convinced the plan was likely to be approved. I really find it tough to believe there is such a fuss over some signage and spray paint. I’m sure if one wanted to work at it, it would be quite easy to find some example of roadwork done for the benefit of drivers for which prep work was done before it got the official vote to move forward. Lord knows I’m not going to bother. If you think such a move is, in principle, wrong, then I nominate you to uncover (or not) that info and prove once and for all whether this is an isolated incident worthy of censure, or just the way roads are built. Clearly we need additional information to place this in context.

  • Morven

    @ Chris Keam # 85

    I beg to differ.

    Whether or not this is a standard practice at city hall is something I cannot judge.

    But the optics of the standing start on a controversial project do not look good.
    It says opportunism trumps common sense among some city staff.

    And, importantly, some stakeholders such as myself who have appeared in front of city council from time to time were always left with the idea that their views counted but it now seems as if we were just bit players in an elaborately stage managed exercise. Not a comfortable feeling.
    -30-

  • Jot

    You know its not vehicles, which are usually 4 metres long and 3 wide, that buy stuff from stores, its the people in them. These humanoids actually do the purchasing and are what make a business survive. And in the space a car takes up you an fit about 15 humans, or about 8 people on bikes. 8 or 15 customers vs 1, if you owned a business what would you rather see walk by ?

    “exhausted-sounding Jerry Dobrovolny” – yes no doubt its due to the 3 bike lines that were implemented. Never mind the constant upkeep on the roads that take up 95% of the roads.

  • Norman

    Fair enough, four seasons, but then there must be a fair assessment of whether bike lanes have made a difference. I have been downtown twice in the last two weeks at noontime, both sunny weekdays, and on one day there was one cyclist in four blocks on Dunsmuir and the second time there were none at all for the entire distance. If the usage doesn’t increase significantly we really have to consider whether this is a good idea or just so much politics.

  • http://www.chriskeam.com Chris Keam

    @Norman:

    Can you give me a sense of what would constitute a significant increase to you and a sense of what you consider a reasonable time frame to achieve that shift?

    Roads were in place well before the advent of the ‘affordable’ Model T, and yet this supposedly great improvement in personal mobility certainly took more than a year to have a significant impact on mode share.

    I don’t know of anyone, regardless of their personal opinions on the best transportation choices for Vancouver who would argue with your suggestion we need to make sure we are chasing good ideas rather than green optics. But, I feel there’s a push to make improvements to cycling infrastructure adhere to a standard that we haven’t expected for any other form of transportation.

  • Respect.Cyclists

    I chose to live close to work and my activities; this is my decision and I chose that because I did not want to be part of that “car society”. I do not depend on cars. I do have my license and I’m part of the Car Cooperative (Auto network) which did surprise me how easy and convenient (many car in my neighborhood and I never have to worry about maintenance or parking (we have a permit to park everywhere it say “Permit Only” in Vancouver). Because the ease of having a car of my own is not there, I get to think “do I really need the car today or is this doable by bike, walking or bus”. It might sound complicated, but might though is that the car society make is TOO easy to be lazy. Something taking the trailer out in the elevator and making the extra steps is more rewarding and at the end of the day, I win more. It is not so complicated and I’m proud of myself.

    Now I’m far from being a hippy or what ever name that you call ME (yes, I’m a person and when you say “cyclist are …” you include all of us that are innocent would you like me to say ALL drivers are STUPID???) and I respect the rules on the road and indicate to everyone when I’m turning or stopping (signaling is communication that is not optional). I am a professional fortunate that my employee offer shower in the building. It takes me less or the same time than a car to get to work and instead of taking my shower at home in the morning, I simply take it at work. My employee even offer inside lock room for my bike (free parking in the building: you only dream of this). And I’m not cheap; I simply choose to live simple (no big house that I use 10%, no big car of my own (I own 300 cars with other members of the coop), not too much material) and I love recycling what other do not need anymore, it got character and I don’t have to worry about the “first scratches”. This does make me less of a person.

    Now, why do I prefer separate bike lane to simple bike lane or to cycling street. Well have you been on the street cycling lately? It is terrifying some time and my only protection is my helmet (which I wear all the time because drivers can be crazy). I have been a victim of hit and run and guess who got the most damage and who was responsible (my bike was total, dead, and the car had nothing but scratches… It took me 2 months to get back on my bike… injured and terrified. This happen where there is a bike lane… In the cycling route, I had bad experience to. One that I should never had been victim of. In the cycling street, at in intersection, I was told by a driver simply “I’ll like to see you cyclist all in the hospital”. Imagine. I was profoundly affected by this road rage. In the bike lane on the viaduct, I finally feel free; in my place, somewhat safer. It’s the cycling highway! Their is always the cars that will turn left even with the two signs saying clearly “No left turn”. But I feel much better.

    Finally, yes there is SOME cyclist that do wrong SOMETHINGS, but there is drivers that do WRONG most of the time and can to much much more damage. How many time to you see a driver do a u-turn in the middle of the intersection or in a small street in front of the round-about. You knew that is not just ILLEGAL but VERY DANGEROUS. Now that only the u-turns. How about going into a round about on the left? Yes I saw that number of time and often it’s when I’m on the cycling streets. What else? How about a classic running a RED LIGHT. Now you are going to say that cyclist do that somethings…. yes that is unfortunate… but what real harm is the cyclist can do… I think you are mostly scare that you are going to hit him because you are coming in the intersection at 15km/h over the limit in a school zone and miss the yellow light warning to slowdown and stop in time.

    Next time that you are frustrate after a cyclist, take a moment and think “who is most dangerous?” and “why do I get angry… if not ROAD RAGE”. Cyclist are human too.

    I was 22 y.o., a young lady, doing everything right on the road when a car is behind me (there was TWO full line on the left) and hunk; he finally got on the left pass me; but me; to stop brutally 50m later. And this incident happen a number of time after that, same scenario.

    So why do you continue cycling you ask. Well, I have my reason (values, live locally, want to put that money in a better place, exercises…). I love cycling and I love how cyclists interact with each other. At stops/red lights, I have met number of cyclist and share conversation. I’m not in my bubble. I can tell other “Coming on your left” or most importantly, I can say “Thank You”. I hate bells, whistle and mostly honking drivers. I’m a human living in a community full of great people.

    My commute should never end in too crying at home after a drivers road rage attack. Yes, it happens. It’s so scary when you are on your bike vulnerable and the drivers attack you.

    For me, when you are in your car and you act stupid, I’m not facing a human… is a dangerous weapon that you have in your hand; one that can kill in seconds.

    Respect me when on the road. Please.

    If you see that I done something stupid… come up gently and put your window down and tell me “Sorry, I couldn’t see you when you came out of the parking lot; you took me by surprise and scare me. The last thing I want is to harm… could you be careful; I’ll be careful too. Thank you” Two human sharing advice for the safety of all.

    Thank you for reading and thank you for being a human in CONTROL of you car. Thank you for letting me live a less stressful commute.

  • Donnie_Darko_

    @90:
    Do you think I care about your reasons to ride a bicycle? If you chose to spend 5000 dollars on a bicycle, why should I give a crap?Greg boy is the one who loves to hear that since he is the one to gain fortune: I don’t care, since I am not part of cycling mafia!

    All I want from you, as a pedestrian and a car driver, is to RESPECT OTHERS! You people have shown absolutely no respect for stop signs, traffic lights, signaling, you use sidewalks when you feel like it, you run over people, and you give absolutely no right of way! And what about helmets and “cat’s eyes”? Do you think you are visible at night? Who the hell do you think you are to think that I would teach another adult how to participate in traffic? Is all this pot making you all insane????

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