Cyclist infractions need to be stopped before somebody gets hurt.
The addition of bike lanes in Victoria have increased the number of infractions cyclists cause and has created a downtown core that is less accessible to other forms of transportation: walking, driving and transit.
Since the addition of the bike lanes, cyclists have developed this sense of entitlement, thinking they can cycle anywhere they want. Daily I see cyclists blowing through stop signs, cycling on the sidewalk, cycling against traffic, not using the bike lanes, bicycling in the crosswalks to cross the street, yet not stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk, cutting in front of vehicles and the most recent one is cyclists using the pedestrian-only walkway on the new blue bridge.
This is bad enough but if you ever point out their behaviour the response is either “whatever” or more choice words which I can’t say in print. I have sent many emails to our city council about my concerns and their response is to defend their position and to pass the buck
In my understanding cyclists fall under the Ministry of Transportation and must follow the rules of the road. If this is true then they should be licensed and be given fines for infractions. Maybe these could pay for all the overruns associated with the bike lanes but that’s a story for another day. I realize that licensing is not a city council issue, however, I’m sure they could advocate for this on the behalf of the majority of us that use different types of transportation.
Erie Pentland
Victoria
