City, Cyclists Should Take Bike Safety Seriously
This will be very unpopular among cyclists and the anti-car lobby inside and outside city hall but it needs to be said.
Cyclists at Ottawa City Hall are perceived as being angelic. A little over the top that. It’s impossible to be against cycling as a sport, recreation or mode of commuting and general travel. Cycling is healthy and easy on the environment, both things to be praised. And your agent has always thought it important to have a sport or two or three and cycling fills the bill.
But cyclists are not angels, just like their motoring counterparts. The number of road laws broken by cyclists is astounding. Stop signs are a suggestion, sidewalks are used a bike paths, cyclists often drive on the wrong side of the road, don’t use hand signs for turning … it goes on and on. Were drivers to break that many rules, there would be carnage on the roads.
The consequences of bad car driving can be death for cyclists. The consequences of cyclists breaking road rules can be death for cyclists.
Yet in the report below, cars are perceived as the problem for cyclists. In fact, cars are a problem for cyclists, but so too are cyclists a problem for cyclists. A wrong move by a cyclist can be death.
This Strategic Road Safety Action Plan below to be discussed at transportation committee today addresses car safety. It does not address bike safety.
In fact, the city doesn’t seriously address bike safety and the lack of care by many cyclists puts themselves in jeopardy on the roads. Why does this report not address licensing for cyclists to pay for education courses for cyclists, law enforcement not just of cars but bikes too, fines for infractions, fines for not being licensed, rules over road use for unlicensed cyclists, mandatory courses and testing. If cycling as a mode of commuting wants to be taken serious, cyclists need to take licensing, enforcement and testing seriously.
And please don’t say that licensing bikes is impossible. When I was a kid, dinosaurs roamed the earth then, bikes were licensed. Obviously in the 1960s, bike technology was far advanced from what it is today. Seriously, licensing should be easier today than it was in the ’60s when humans were landed on the moon but not for most of the time since. So much for progress.
The difference today is care. People cared about putting a human or two on the moon. People cared about bike safety.
Cyclists will tell you licensing is impossible in 2024 but that’s just not true.
The city and the bike lobby are serious about car safety. When will they get serious about cycling safety?
Report English – Strategic Road Safety Action Plan Annual Report
Ken Gray
For You:
Administrator Would Make Final City Decisions
An Abundance Of Bull-Doodle: WHOPPER WATCH
Welcome Centres Just Don’t Work: THE VOTER
Public Health Writes A Fantastic Report: PATTON
City Defers Winter Maintenance Decision
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
In addition to education for adults, the City needs to educate kids on bike safety as well as requiring them to be licenced.
There used to be a Safety Village in Britannia Park that was a small set-up with roads, sidewalks, traffic light, stop signs and so-on. I think it was run by the Kiwanis or another service group. Schools and summer camps brought kids there and they were put through their paces to learn traffic safety which included the rules around bikes. It may have been just the kids from the two Ottawa school boards that used it.
The City should be setting up similar Safety Villages across the city so that kids get these valuable lessons before bad habits set in. The Brittania one wasn’t very big and could easily fit in a corner of a parking lot at a community centre or recreation complex. They might be able to find a sponsor to help with the operating costs, perhaps a company that sells kids’ bikes. Alternatively, they could ask every retailer to include with a bike purchase a voucher for a session at the Safety Village. Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that the kid will make it there and a better way to reach all kids would be for it to be done through the schools. Kids could then get a certificate of completion that they could present when they apply for their licence that could either be mandatory or give them a discount on the price of the licence. I lean towards the discount since it’s not the fault of the child if their school trip hasn’t happened yet.
One of the benefits of teaching kids is that they often bring the lessons home with them and pass them on to their parents. It doesn’t always work but, as an example, many a parent was pushed to quit smoking by their informed kids.