As a bicycle commuter for about four decades, here are the many reasons I am in your way.
Reason 1
The one space that, in theory, a bicyclist should not be in your way is in a bike lane.
However, these are often beside a parked car. Having been hit and injured by a car door that accidentally opened in front of me, I cannot bicycle near a parked car. It is not possible to see if a car driver is in the car when approaching it, so the only safe alternative is to ride a bicycle quite far from the parked cars. In Squamish, one bike lane for three blocks is good—the one on the south side of Pemberton Ave. The ones on Queens Way and Government are almost far enough away, and the ones on Tantalus Road and The Boulevard are too close.
So I’m in your way. If there were some way to remove some of these parked cars (one side of the road?), there would be room for bicyclists to be separate from cars and car doors.
Reason 2
People park their cars on the side of the road, and the only safe space is in the middle of the road. This is particularly true on Westway Avenue, Guildford Drive, and most roads downtown (especially from Loggers Lane to Fourth Avenue).
Reason 3
Often, the place for a bicyclist on a road is the shoulder of the road. The shoulders of our roads are dirty most of the time. Occasionally, the District can sweep the shoulders free of gravel and leaves. Up until one year ago, they were pretty good at doing this. This past year has been terrible. The shoulders can be so filled with gravel that it is hard to want to bicycle on the shoulder. It is impossible to see if anything such as glass might be mixed with the gravel, and if there is the right amount of gravel on the pavement, this creates a surface that is easier to slide on.
Reason 4
The road system says to “share the road.” This doesn’t make much sense because bicycles and cars go at different speeds. This occurs mainly on Cleveland Avenue downtown.
Reason 5
One of the main ways that municipalities deal with bicyclists is to put us on multi-use paths. Now, we can be in the way of pedestrians. Or is it the other way around? Regardless, since pedestrians and bicyclists travel at different speeds (all the more different now that we have e-bikes), this is not a good solution either. For a commuter bicyclist, these paths are not suitable. Now, we get to annoy pedestrians instead. The worst trail for this is from Brennan Park to the Adventure Centre. It is busy, has roads that intersect it, and slippery wet bridges.
If you would like bicyclists not in your way so much, you need to ask the District to invest more in bicycle-only spaces. We have one—between the two ends of Willow Crescent. Nice, but it creates a problem when you want to turn left onto Government Road at the west end. You could also not park your car on the busier public roads. You could support the removal of on-street parking to make space for bicycle commuters. You could ask the District to find ways to clean the shoulders more often.
But if you don’t want to do this or don’t want to give anything up, then, at least now, you know why that bicyclist is in your way!
Tom Brown
Squamish
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