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EDITORIAL: Forward momentum

First a bit of good news. The number of people who commute by bicycle is at record levels in the City and District of North Vancouver, according to the last census.
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First a bit of good news. The number of people who commute by bicycle is at record levels in the City and District of North Vancouver, according to the last census.

Now the bad news – we’re still talking just tiny numbers – two or three per cent overall. But any cyclist can tell you about the importance of forward momentum.

The most recent Bike to Work Week, however, ended in tragedy. A local man was killed in a collision with a dump truck on St. Andrews Avenue. We don’t know exactly what happened in this case and it will likely be under investigation for months. But we do know that it did not need to happen.

Our North Shore municipalities have shown varying degrees of enthusiasm for adding bicycle infrastructure but the fact remains our road network was designed almost exclusively in the interest of drivers. At best, our roads can be unfriendly, intimidating places that don’t encourage anyone to get on a bike and ride. At worst, they’re deadly, as we saw here last week.

It’s campaign season so we fully expect to see a few candidates trying to distinguish themselves by declaring that they’ll rip out wasteful bike lanes. This won’t get car traffic moving any faster. It will just get fewer people on bikes making it home safe at the end of the day, something no one wants.

More people on bikes means less carbon altering our climate, fewer cars on our congested streets and a healthier populace overall. When it comes to encouraging people to use bikes to get around, there’s only one direction we should be pedalling in – forward.

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