Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

A Few Final (?) Words on Bicycle and Car Safety

I'd like to thank all my correspondents - commenters here in the blog and e-mailers from the print edition - for sharing my concern about cyclist safety.

Obviously, contrary to some of the angrier responses, I do not want to kill all cyclists. My newlywed daughter and her husband both bought new bikes just last weekend - I want both of them, and all of you bikeys, to be as safe as possible.

Equally obviously, some of us disagree on how best to maximize the objectives we all share.

But I'd prefer to focus on what is agreed among us.

One (typical) response from a bikey contained the sentence:

"Cycling is dangerous because so many motorists have a bad attitude towards cyclists and view them as being inferior road users and a nuisance factor."

Exactly!

But as I have said before herein, how can we have a decent argument if we agree on everything??

Our editor's column in this past weekend's print edition outlined his personal experience with just such a driver.

What is sad, yet almost charming in a naïve, near-childlike-innocence sort of way, is how so many cyclists seem to believe that these motorists can be changed, that passing a law like the one proposed by Ms DiNovo can correct their behaviour.

Ain't gonna happen.

Our governments have shown no interest whatsoever in improving driver training in any of the myriad of ways in which it needs improving, or in toughening licensing procedures in this province.

And as another cyclist pointed out here a few days ago, cyclists themselves are subject to no licencing whatsoever, either for their vehicles or themselves.

So how is this improved behaviour going to come about?

Our editor feels that giving the police a definite measurement which would allow them to charge a motorist with no room for error will help.

Not a chance. Anyone who has tried to defend himself against a traffic violation and has had to deal with police testimony knows how that's going to turn out...

Some cyclists almost seem to revel in challenging car drivers, insisting on taking their 'space' from the middle of the lane and forcing car drivers to go around them.

They say that is their 'right'.

It's a privelege, not a right, but let's move on...

But car drivers have a steel cage around them. They have seat belts. They have air bags.

Cyclists - some of them anyway - wear plastic helmets.

Doesn’t sound like a fair fight to me.

You can pass a law demanding that scorpions have to stay four feet away from humans.

But if you go walking barefoot in the desert...

The scorpion might be breaking the law.

But you go home in a body bag.

From an overall safety perspective, it obviously makes far more sense for cyclists to ride on the sidewalk than on the road. Bike-into-pedestrian will cause far less damage than car-into-bike.

That's not gonna happen either, because that would be trying to apply logic to a situation where logic clearly does not apply.

Above-mentioned daughter asked me, "Well, how DO we ride safely? What IS the answer?"

To me, the answer is as obvious as everything else surrounding this issue - it can NOT be done safely.

If you want to ride your bicycle in Toronto traffic, you are taking a terrible risk, and I'm afraid there simply isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

Except avoid it at all costs.

Truckers enforcing the law

Saw something on the 401 the other day that I had not seen before in Canada, although I have seen it in the States.

Our brain-dead highway designers keep making the right lane disappear, which means cars always try to force their way to the very end of the disappearing lane before cutting someone off to squeeze in at the very last minute.

OK, so they'd probably do the same thing if the disappearing lane were the left lane as it should be, but at least the driving lane would be sacrosanct.

What I saw was two transport truckers, one in the soon-to-disappear right lane, the other in the middle-soon-to-be-right lane, staggered nose-to-tail so no-one could get by them.

When they got to the end of the merge, the one pulled safely in front of the other.

This forced everyone to play nice and merge in a civilized manner.

A shame (a) the cops don't enforce better lane discipline, and (b) that we need truckers to do their job for them.

But I'm glad someone is doing it.

Road poetry

Saw a sign on the back of a "Moon Star Express" transport truck from Ypsilanti Michigan today (couldn't take a picture; no hands-free camera...):

"This truck makes wide yet graceful turns."

I smiled all the way home.

Michael Bryant not guilty

Politics - and journalism - make strange bedfellows. All charges against Ontario's former Attorney-General Michael Bryant over the fatal altercation between cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard and Bryant's car in Yorkville last summer have been dropped. For details on the case and why the charges were dropped, visit this link. Given that Bryant shepherded O.P.P. Commissioner Julian Fantino's odious '50-over' street racing law into effect - that's the one which turns 62-year old Grandmas into criminals yet does nothing whatsoever to stop street racing in our province - you wouldn't think I'd have much sympathy for Mr. Bryant. Certainly, the biking community - with which I seem to be having some issues despite the fact that we all want bikeys to be safer on our streets; we just don't agree on how to make that happen - is already smelling a rat, figuring Bryant's connections helped pave the way for this dismissal. This despite extraordinary precautions having been taken to ensure fairness, and the appearance of fairness, including bringing a prosecutor in from British Columbia to handle the case. But from the agreed-upon facts of the case, who among us might not have panicked, if following what by all accounts was a lovely 12th wedding anniversary celebration with our partner, we had been accosted by an agitated and inebriated young man while driving through Yorkville in our convertible with the top down on a lovely summer's night? Just as Sheppard's recent record of conflicts involving other motorists, his unusual - not to say scary - appearance, and an (alleged) domestic incident earlier that evening at his girlfriend's residence which involved a police call, should not and were not deemed to be relevant to the issue at hand, neither were Bryant's former occupation, his passing of this horrible law - nor the fact that he was driving an expensive car - relevant. It was, as Bryant says, a "tragedy". What is relevant to the current aforementioned discussion about bikes and cars: if a bikey picks a fight with a car, he's gonna lose, every time.

More on cyclists

Well, I predictably got flamed by two-wheelers of every stripe, accusing me of being non-environmental (the METHANE that bikeys produce! No catalytic converters in those Lycra shorts...), to being prejudiced against Mennonites (yes, my Mennonite relatives are also very misinformed when they drive their horse-and-buggies on public roads without proper lighting).

I was also importuned to "Get Real!"

Well folks, the REALITY is, Toronto is NOT Copenhagen or Amsterdam, and never will be, not in our lifetimes.

The REALITY is that cars outnumber bikes - what, 10,000 to one? 100,000 to one? On the Avenue Road hill south of St. Clair in February, maybe a million to NONE?

The REALITY is, cars are not going away.

The REALITY is, cars outweigh bikes by what - 40 to one?

The REALITY is that the danger is caused by car drivers, not bikers.

Of course it is. Who ever said anything different? Come on, people - how are we going to have a decent argument if you keep making MY points??

The issue is that I AM being real; it is the bikeys who are living in a fantasyland.

Well, not all of them. I got at least one supportive e-mail from a cyclist which I thought I'd share:

Your column yesterday was very good. I would like to add that I think all cyclists should be licensed. I have a bicycle and I ride it on a regular basis and I make sure my bike and my riding obey all the Highway Traffic Act regulations from horn to lights to stop signs. But if cyclists keep asking for special lanes, special space, special lock up areas, it's about time they started to pay for them! Let them take a riding test and get a license, get their cycles certified for safety, buy insurance, buy a license plate! If it's good enough for cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, it should be good enough for cyclists! Why do cyclists like to play chicken with cars? Don't they understand basic physics? Too often the only part of their body that works is the middle finger! 4 million cars in Ontario (a guess) and much fewer cycles but the cyclists scream more and seem to get more than they deserve. I guess if I wasn't so busy trying to earn a living and pay my bills, I would have time to cry like a spoiled baby too:(
I have read some of the comments [here] and there are a few good points and bad points. One thing I noticed is that a number of people say they have a 'right' to ride a bicycle. I just read the 'Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms' and nowhere does it give me or you or anyone the right to ride a bicycle or drive a car or a horse or anything :). That means these are all 'privileges'. I wish people understood the difference. I also noted that not one of them indicated the will or desire to become licensed but some do think they pay as much as I do to use the roads.. They are wrong but I would gladly accept a full refund of what I do pay and then I could retire rich!

Howard Cohen

Amen, Howard.

Cyclists - get a grip on something other than your handlebars

Cyclists across the province are riding - metaphorically, at least - to support NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo's private members bill which would amend Ontario's Highway Traffic Act to establish specific distances that motorists must leave for cyclists, from the current 'so far as may be necessary to avoid a collision', to three feet below 50 km/h, four feet between 50 and 80, and five feet over 80.

Um, how many metres would that be?

And would motorists need long, calibrated curb feelers to determine those distances?

Cyclists say they need this protection, especially at higher speeds when the wind from passing cars can blow them right off their bikes.

HELLO?

You're riding on a road on such a flimsy contraption that the wind from other road users can blow you into the ditch?

Are you nuts??

And you expect your government and publicly-funded health care to support you in this insanity?

Yikes.

If Ms DiNovo really did belong to a 'democratic' party, new or old, she might recognize that while democracies have some level of obligation to protect minorities, it still is 'majority rules', 'greatest good for the greatest number', etc.

This law would force motorists to swerve into adjacent lanes, probably causing even more collisions, in which the cyclists would likely be collateral damage anyway.

Causing more crashes is not the way to improved road safety - for anyone.

Of course, this bill hasn't a snowflake's chance in Hades of getting passed in a Liberal-dominated legislature.

But it does show that cyclists really don't understand how dangerous what they do is.

Why should their risk-taking impinge on the rest of us?

Welcome to the Newest Member of the Kenzie Fleet

Not bad, eh?

It's a 1999, 78,000 km, five-speed, some sort of anniversary/luxury edition (it has air, cruise, leather and a Nardi steering wheel!)

Actually, we're still in the process of buying it from Doug Mepham, long-time friend, co-founder of Targa Newfoundland, and one of those people who was born with his hair combed - hence, the sort of person you would want to buy a used car from.

He was not the original owner - that person put a roll bar in it because his wife wouldn't ride in it otherwise.

Lady Leadfoot isn't quite that fussy, but more safety never hurt.

She has always wanted a convertible and when this one came up - well, you bite the bullet.

And has there ever been a convertible top easier and faster to work?

I have only driven it a little so far - the car is as tight as an 11-year old car could possibly be. It has been resprayed - said original owner lived on a gravel road which took its toll.

Yes, the front end does look lowered (or the rear end jacked up). Doug says various inspections by presumably knowledgeable types revealed nothing but stock parts under there, so who knows how that happened? (If someone out there DOES know, please inform!)

Just have to be careful driving into filling stations.

Among its many virtues, the Miata reminded so many people how much fun it can be to drive slow. Sure, it does make a great race car - nimble and quick (which is not to say 'fast'). But you can tool around, maybe take an on-ramp a bit quicker than you normally would, take the 'racing line' through a bend and never leave your lane, and feel like a pro racer.

And the wind in your hair on a warm summer's evening?

Can't wait.

How stupid is Ontario's new cell-phone law?

Looks like we may have found a way around the entirely pointless hands-free cell phone law now in effect in Ontario. From my interpretation of the wording of the thing, all you have to do is to have your passenger hold the phone next to your ear so you can carry on your conversation. This therefore leaves your 'hands free' to drive - or, drink your coffee, eat your cereal or go through your vacation photographs, none of which appear to be proscribed by this inane legislation.

Changing of the Formula One guard

Despite Michael Schumacher's best finish of the season (fourth) at today's Spanish Grand Prix, and the first time in which the seven-time World Champion has outperformed his young Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, the new reality was perfectly expressed when Ferrari team leader Fernando Alonso's race engineer came on the team radio to tell the Spaniard that "Michael is holding everybody up...".

Mark Webber's Red Bull was relentlessly perfect, winning from pole, Alonso lucked into second when Lewis Hamilton's McLaren blew a tire on the next-to-last lap (although the TV commentators did point out that his hell-bent-for-election driving style is harder on tires than his smoother teammate Jensen Button), while Webber's Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, to me the fastest driver of the lot, was very disappointed when a variety of mechanical and race-luck circumstances relegated him to third.

Still, it's the most competitive F1 season, with more potential winning cars and drivers, we've seen for some time - maybe ever.

Wonder if Bernie Ecclestone's been watching NASCAR...

He's BACK!

After losing my iPhone, I never quite got the hang of blogging on the replacement phone I borrowed. (No point in buying a new iPhone until the new 4G hi-def unit arrives!)

But I've got a temporary iPhone replacement now, and as soon as I remember how to use it, we should be back at ya regularly. Thanks for your patience.

I also apologize for not updating the comments like I should.

Work in progress!