Sidewalk cyclists are a menace — to say nothing of the fact they are breaking the law. And no one at the city is in a hurry to do a heck of a lot about it.
“Harrumph,” I have heard forgiving bureaucrats exclaim. “Cyclists will stop using sidewalks once the roadways are safer.”
The city’s propaganda puts pedestrians at the head of the “active transportation” priority list — being walkers, then cyclists and then public transit users.
But it is cyclists who are the apex animals in this particular kingdom. And none, it seems, are cut more slack than that relative minority: the sidewalks scofflaws.
They are the ones who find it more convenient to pedal down pedestrian pathways rather than using the millions of dollars worth of bike routes the city has created during the Vision administration.
I encounter these two-wheeled twits every day I choose to walk around my neighbourhood. I’ve found the most dangerous routes for pedestrians to travel are along main streets. There they are ubiquitous in their disdain for the safety hazard they cause.
I spotted one guy pedalling down the sidewalk taking up the whole space with three dogs on leashes trailing behind him. Dog walkers and their small pack may give you pause. This was just nuts.
The other morning I headed down the sidewalk on the north side of Point Grey Road, a cyclist’s nirvana. I noted some construction ahead at Alma.
Large signs blocked the separated bike lane on either side of a backhoe digging into the street. “Cyclists dismount and walk on the sidewalk” they declared.
But it may as well have been written in Urdu for all the attention any cyclists paid to it. Up on to the sidewalk they went under pedal power all the way.
I was about to cross to the south side when I saw a couple more cyclists pedalling down that sidewalk.
On Fourth Avenue I encountered a middle-aged fellow pedalling through the crowd towards me.
As I tried to figure out whether I should flatten myself against a storefront or hop off the curb, I asked: “Why are you riding on the sidewalk?”
“Excuse me?” he said. Then I noticed he had two ear buds, one jammed in each ear and likely attached to some audio source. He may not have heard me. “Why” I asked turning up my own volume as he came even closer, “are you riding on the sidewalk?”
“Excuse me?” he said once more as if was still unable to hear. Maybe he’s deaf as well as dumb, I thought because when he passed me he used what may have been some esoteric sign language to respond. He extended his right arm and raised his middle finger.
What cracked me up, because I was well out of harm’s way at the time, was a lovely young woman that same lovely afternoon.
She, too, was riding on the sidewalk. And the sidewalk was right next to a designated bike lane which, as far as I could see, all the cars were carefully avoiding.
Of course she had a helmet. It was carefully strapped to the handlebars of her bike.
I’m sure she thought that, if she suffered some mishap, slipping over the curb onto the road for example, that while she was sailing through the air she could undo the helmet and put it on her head before she hit the pavement.
Which brings me to another point: If the penalty reflects the seriousness of the violation, please note the ticket from having no helmet on is $29. For riding on the sidewalk it is more than triple that at $109.
It would be unfair to say the cops are doing nothing in dealing with all this lawlessness. But facing an apparent wall of indifference — even excusing sidewalk cycling — from the city while there is much concern about riding without helmets, it is no wonder there are 10 times the tickets for helmet violations.
Yes, the number of tickets issued for both violations has come down year over year. But when it comes to cycling on the sidewalk, the goal should be zero tolerance.
agarr@vancourier.com
twitter.com/allengarr
