Dear Editor:
Re: Sharing is Caring: Cyclists Must Obey Rules of the Road, June 8 Mailbox.
I read the letter of a retired police officer with dismay. According to Mr. Kyllo’s letter, he was riding “towards the middle of the road and I take up the entire lane.” I understood this to mean towards the middle from the right-hand side so as to take the lane. His letter indicated he was not riding abreast of his children. Mr. Bittante reads Mr. Kyllo’s letter to include an “admission” that he was riding “as close to the centre line as possible” and excoriates him for breaking the law and setting a poor example for his children. The Motor Vehicle Act does indeed require riding as close as “practicable” – not “possible” – to the right-hand side. It is well established law in B.C. that taking the lane may be as close to the right-hand side as is “practicable” depending on the circumstances. Such circumstances might include, inter alia, ensuring visibility of the cyclist, avoiding the “door zone” or preventing unsafe passing by motor vehicle traffic where road width is inadequate to allow safe passing – the latter being Mr. Kyllo’s circumstances, as I read his letter. This is not the first instance I have encountered of police displaying a lack of understanding that taking the lane is permissible at law.
But more disturbing is that a police officer would show greater concern for Mr. Kyllo’s alleged “entitlement” than for an impatient motorist using their vehicle to physically brush aside a human being.
According to Statistics Canada data, there were an average of roughly 2,500 fatalities and 200,000 injuries annually in Canada due to motor vehicles over the two decades between 1996 and 2015. When opioid fatalities reached numbers like these, it was declared a public health crisis. While fatality rates for vehicle occupants are on the decline, the same is not true for vulnerable road users. Sure there are entitled cyclists out there, just as there are entitled motorists and entitled pedestrians. An entitled cyclist or pedestrian might be an annoyance. And entitled motorist might be a killer. There is a world of difference.
Natasha Reid
North Vancouver
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