The Transportation Food Chain

Some cyclists complain to no end about dangerous car drivers, but what about those same cyclists’ cavalier attitude around pedestrians? Welcome to the transportation food chain where bicycles tend to be caught right in the middle.

 More and more people are waking up to the fact that bicycles are a favoured and most efficient form of human transportation. These same people are adopting cycling as an alternate form of transportation, particularly for commuting to and from work – RUSH HOUR. Now is the time for serious thought not only on how to keep cyclists safe on our busy streets, but also how to keep everyone safe on multi-use trails and shared paths. As more and more people climb aboard bicycles, it is also time to consider how to avoid accidents and injury on our sidewalks and multi-use trails.

Bicycles are classified as vehicles and subject to the same rules of the road as motorists. In addition, Mississauga by-laws, for example 555-00 43(4), state other bicycle-specific regulations. There have been plenty of cyclists who have been injured, sometimes fatally, as a result of contact with moving automobiles. Subsequently, cyclists are well aware of the importance of riding safely and for the most part ride cautiously. Not because a by-law tells them to, but because they understand the danger should a car make contact – helmet or no helmet. As for pedestrians, they too have a right to safe movement. Subsequently, the city has given them their own safe havens: The sidewalk. There are “shared trails” for both pedestrians and cyclists, however, the sidewalk is currently defined as being for the use of pedestrians.

So the motorists don’t want cyclists on “their” streets and pedestrians don’t want cyclists on their sidewalks…Where do we go from here? 

On many multi-use paths, pedestrians have now been assigned the weaker-than status along with their dogs and strollers. Some cyclists on those trails have now adopted a fast-moving king-of-the-road status. Most have seen the “Cyclists Yield to Pedestrians” signs yet choose to ignore them. They think that it hardly seems fair that a cyclist on a trail white-knuckles their handlebars, clinging as closely to the edge as they can to avoid pedestrians, yet that is exactly what cyclists have to do when they ride on road amid the onslaught of fast moving vehicles. Bike lanes and sharrows are an oasis in that arid desert, but Mississauga cyclists still find those hard to come by. There are solutions. Courtesy and consideration are the most obvious ones, however, proactive and insightful options do exist and there are evidence of them everywhere.

Bike freeway in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland

So the motorists don’t want cyclists on “their” streets, pedestrians don’t want cyclists on their sidewalks, and some people don’t want to share park trails with cyclists. If truth be known, cyclists don’t want to be on the sidewalks either. Families with children naturally choose sidewalks in consideration of “safety”. Cyclists would prefer to ride on well marked, well signed, “shared” roadways, however, even for experienced cyclists the “safe” route on the sidewalk is the common sense choice. So, where do we go from here?  

As one MCAC member recalls, “Once on a bike trail I ran over a dog’s paw because the dog moved the wrong way, and another time nearly hit a little kid who darted out in front of me — had I hit them head-on I might have killed them and I was very shaken up. I try to go slow on the trails when there are people, but always feel the risk — my bell gets a lot of use”.

No doubt the trail systems are a good place for leisure and novice cyclists to get around. However, regular cyclists who have a destination in mind will need to be given lane priority on the streets just as pedestrians must be yielded to on the multi-use trails. The most straighforward, and logical, place to begin was communicated to Council and city staff by hundreds of citizens in February 2008. Put sharrows on the streets to start and then build up the cycling infrastructure on the streets according to schedule. Sharrows aren’t a final answer, but they are a constant reminder to motorists that bicycles are vehicles that have equal right to the road. There are plenty of over-built roads in Mississauga that would be much better off having two of their lanes reserved for bicycles and transit stops. Our honourable Mayor McCallion set a precident on Car Free Day 2008 when she stated, “every time we reconstruct a road we put a bicycle path along it.” We can trust that also applies to any new roads. The Confederation Bridge and Mclaughlin Road project is an exciting example of this prededent where the roads and newly constructed bridges will sport bike lanes.

Commuter cyclists travel across the city on the streets, not poking along the park trails slaloming among walkers and strollers. Now is the time to designate the streets of Mississauga for cyclists as well as cars. Keep it simple with signs and sharrows and then aggressively make the major infrastrucure changes over time. The existing pavement needs to be equitably allocated to accomodate cycling – the near-zero-emissions mode of transportation that is actually sustainable for the long-term with immediate gains such as healthy lifestyle and environmental benefits.

The impetus for this article was triggered by a YouTube video called “My Peaceful Bike Ride” by a guy named Keith (ksmackvolleyball) in Mississauga. Keith’s main mode of transportation around the whole city is by bicycle. He admits that the video is all in fun, but he added, “I do find it frustrating to bike through the parks on weekends as they are always full of people who tend to walk out in front of you. People do not realize they sometimes (present an obstacle on) the paths when a biker may be coming up fast behind them.”

Enjoy the video embedded below and please share your comments. The Mississauga Cycling Advisory Committee values the opinions of Mississauga citizens in order to best represent the cycling needs of the city.

[youtube KXE0bp5bN68]