Cyclists

CYCLISTS

Is there any good time to start bashing bicycle riders? Sure, and now is one of them.

More and more cities are providing cycle lanes for these nimrods and I think that is just plain wrong. Don't get me wrong, bicycle lanes are okay in some places, but major thoroughfares are not one of them. In our town, we had a nice four lane road along the river that took commuters downtown in a matter of minutes. At 5 PM it took them safely home again, in a matter of minutes. Everyone was happy and God was in his Heaven. Then some dork at City Hall decided we needed a bicycle lane down this road. It would provide safety for cyclists and reduce pollution from idling cars were his arguments for installing these silly things.

We went from 4 lanes of traffic down to two. This results in longer line-ups at traffic lights with people waiting to get through. This results in more idling cars spewing exhaust fumes into the ozone. This results in more cases of road rage as motorists run out of people to talk to on their cell phones and decide that if the four cars ahead of them can turn on a red light, then so can they. As for the safety of the cyclists, you can see one or two riders every once in a while actually using the lanes. The rest, if any are to be found, continue to ride on the sidewalk as they feel safer there. Strange that we have a by-law prohibiting bicycles from being on sidewalks, but the police seem loathe to enforce it.

My biggest beef with cyclists is that though they are classified the same as other vehicles under the Highway Traffic Act, they don't obey any of the rules of the road or go through the gyrations a motorist has to in order to be on the road in the first place.