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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Sharing the road

Posted Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 10:56 AM

Today I was walking along Quinpool Road and witnessed a driver honk their horn, lay on the gas pedal and swerve extremely fast in front of a cyclist to make a right turn into a driveway. The cyclist had a child on the front of the bike. I got goosebumps from the whole scenario. The driver literally missed the cyclists by a hair.

I believe that as part of driver training, drivers need to be educated on how to deal with cyclists! The driver of this car was completely ignorant about what to do in this situation and panicked. Not cool at all, and very dangerous.

I have lived in Toronto and Vancouver and have travelled to places where there are a lot of cyclists (South Korea, Amsterdam) and have not seen people react this way.

It may seem simple to us who cycle and have lived in much busier cities where cycling makes sense on the roads and streets, but some drivers seriously often do not know what to do---they NEED TO KNOW! I am hesitant to cycle in Halifax and often get reminded why.

One day I was cycling and got called a bitch really loudly by a passenger in a car. Another day I was in a truck with a guy from rural Nova Scotia and as he waited for the cyclist to ride by (it took about eight seconds and she thanked him for waiting), he called her a bitch three times. When I asked him why he was calling her a bitch, he couldn’t tell me.

To me, this is disturbing behaviour towards someone on a bike who is getting exercise and not polluting the environment. Please drivers, I am begging you to learn (anywhere you can) to share the road with cyclists so Halifax can be a progressive, safe city for all who use the streets and roads.

—Roberta, Halifax

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agree 100%.
I love Halifax so much, and motorists are usually so considerate to pedestrians, but the one things that's always bugged me has been the inconsiderate culture towards cyclists. It's an attitude that seems to be slowly changing, however, the recent addition of bike lanes seems to be a step in the right direction.

/living in Europe now and bike lanes are Everywhere -it's fantastic.

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