To the two jackasses by Halifax Shopping Centre on Wednesday:
Mr Car Driver: Please be aware that bicyclists are allowed on the road as much as you are. I know you probaly didn’t mean to get that close to Mr. Bike Rider, but try and drive safe ‘kay?
Mr. Bike Rider: The next time you scream your guts out at a driver who gets a little close, don’t try and hide your helmet-less head in the hood of your jacket. Falling without a helmet on is pretty painful, but going ballistic on Mr. Car Driver and then trying to hide that you aren’t wearing made you look like a douchebag.
Who knows, maybe you’d feel safer (and further away from getting a ticket) if you wore one?
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
Where in the highway traffic act does it say bikes are to be on the road and cars are to share highways with them? An n-horsepower vehicle can be used as a deadly weapon. Drivers are required to register their vehicles and become licensed and insured to use them on a public highway. This is not true of a bipedal machine like a bicycle.OP, the key phrase here is deadly weapon. You risk your life and the lives of others when bipedal machines (bikes) operate on n-horsepower platforms (highways).Please direct your bitch to city planners… yes, the ones who tax the shit out of everything and make it illegal for you to ride on the sidewalk… to accommodate you with a region-wide bipedal appropriate platform (foot path, bike path, bike lane, etc.) In the meantime you aught to be careful not to DIE on our highways. If saving your own ass isn’t reason enough to, in the meantime, stick to side streets and safer avenues, then consider the many lives traveling inside those cars who are endangered by your corpse on the road in rush hour.
Direct from the Motor Vehicle Act, Kay:TRAFFIC ON THE HIGHWAY85 (1) Every person riding a bicycle or animal upon a highway and every person driving any animal shall be subject to the provisions of this Act applicable to a driver of a vehicle, except those provisions which by their very nature can have no application. 137 In Sections 131 to 136, “vehicle” includes a bicycle, and “driver” includes the rider of a bicycle. R.S., c. 293
Hey Kay, why are you goin off on the OP? They are just commenting on what they saw. They were neither the cyclist OR the driver! In this instance, both drivers weren’t very courteous to the other and the fact that the biker wasn’t even wearing a helmet is just the icing on the cake.
I’m not going off on anybody, Mimi, just discussing an interesting topic. This is news to me, Miranda. I’ve seen cops giving away dangerous driving tickets to cars traveling too slow on highways. It sounds incredible but it’s true, slow moving vehicles on highways create dangerous situations and those drivers get fined. Seems like a non motorized vehicle doesn’t stand a legal chance when cast in this light. Also, I’m required to pass a test and prove my knowledge of the highway traffic act BEFORE I may proceed to use our highways. Things just don’t add up and the bicyclist takes their lives in their hands when competing with cars.
I understand your point, Kay. I don’t know any cyclist who would ride on 100 series highways. But the old highways are fair game. Probably safer than city streets, actually. And slow moving vehicles are permitted on highways, they just have to keep as far right as possible and use their hazzard lights. Bicycles are supposed to be equipped with those lights too. The slow drivers you see getting ticketed are probably old guys in hats toodling along at 50 with three miles of traffic behind them. I’d love to see a network of bike lanes in the city, but I don’t see it coming to pass any time soon. Also, I’m %100 in favour of testing and licensing of cyclists who want to ride on the road.People keep telling me I’m taking my life in my hands every time I get on my bike and ride into traffic. But I’ve been cycling in this city for ten years, through all kinds of traffic, and I’ve never even had a close call. I don’t know many people who drive every day who can say that.
Actually, I want to recant something. I DO know a couple of cyclists who ride on 100 series highways. I think they are fucking loony.
If I hit you with my car doing 100 kph I’m going to kill you. If I hit you with my car doing 50 kph I’m going to kill you. Slow versus fast, animal versus machine – slow animals will lose every time. Just ask a porcupine.