This column is an imaginary conversation between Byron the Bicyclist and other road users.
Dear Maddie the Motorist.
Wow. Go by Bike Week was great! I biked Monday through Saturday and helped students at Chilcotin Road School improve their biking skills at a bike rodeo. On Friday afternoon, about 25 enthusiasts gathered for a Mass Bike Ride through town.
But Sunday was a big scary downer! I decided to bike to church. It gives me fresh air and exercise. I was biking west on Oliver Street from Third Avenue to Second Avenue. Then a dark-coloured Ford Explorer SUV passed me; its mirror was just six inches from mine!
Passing that close is not safe. What if I had moved left just a bit to miss a pothole or piece of gravel? That would have caused a crash and I would likely have been injured.
Then the Ford Explorer turned right on Second Avenue just six inches or 15 centimeters from the curb.
Does the driver not realize perhaps how wide their vehicle is? There was no on-coming traffic so it would have been safe to cross that line and go wider around me. Alternatively, the driver could have slowed and waited a few seconds until I had passed Second Avenue.
The BC Highway Traffic Act, through Bill 23, has just made it a legal requirement to have at least one metre between a vehicle and a bicycle, pedestrian or scooter.
To be specific, that is from the left end of the bicycle mirror to the right end of the vehicle mirror. At higher speeds, this should be even further.
Signed; Byron the Bicyclist
Dear Byron the Bicyclist.
I am glad there was no crash, and you were not injured! Fellow drivers, please stay at least one full metre from bicyclists when you pass.
Signed; Maddy the Motorist
Bert Groenenberg has been walking or biking in Williams Lake for over 30 years.
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