Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

And then there are the two people on bicycles (I hesitate to use the word “cyclist”) I encountered this afternoon as I was driving along Erb into Uptown from Fischer Hallman. First one, west of University, coming towards me in the bicycle lane. Second one, east of Westmount, coming towards me in my lane (albeit over at the curb). Absolutely unbelievable. I hope those people don’t drive cars, though — that level of stupidity in someone operating a motor vehicle could be severely hazardous to others. And of course many will view people like that as representative of the entire cycling community.

I always have a hard time blaming cyclists for breaking the rules.  I always do my best to follow the rules, but ignoring all the bullying by drivers, I am frequently forced to break the law, how many red lights have I been forced to go through because I cannot activate the detector, and no car is forthcoming.  How many crosswalks have I ridden through on MUTs in the region.  Eventually, you get the idea the rules don't, shouldn't, and even weren't meant to apply to you.

I used to blame these cyclists for encouraging drivers to hate cyclists, but I've long since realized, they're just an excuse, not the reason for the anti-bike behaviour.

In the Netherlands, when wrong way cycling is a problem, usually because crossing the road is difficult or inconvenient, a bidirectional cycle path is the solution.

I'm not saying that cyclists shouldn't follow the rules, but it is important to understand why they don't.  The same follows for cars too, I hate speeding cars, but I understand the reasons, and would like to see those reasons fixed.