Editorial: Cyclists bumbling down the road will probably get mashed

Here’s the thing about Edmonton culture: it’s got this way of raising cycling above all other forms of transportation.

The other day I was writing in a certain trendy café known for its chai. I was enjoying myself somewhat until some hipster woman beside me started to elaborate on how she was “disappointed” that consumer culture has permitted Furious 7 to break multiple box office records and take attention away from “artistic” films.

That bitch had some nerve.

I couldn’t help but note the parallel between her attitude about Furious 7 and the way Edmontonians tend to subvert vehicular transportation below the less petroleum-oriented way of cycling. But bestowing the right-of-way onto flimsy little bicycles does this city a major disservice in safety and efficiency. The 7,500 cyclists seriously injured in Canada each year have directly felt the impact of such regulation.

The safety problem comes from having a tiny human amid a stampede of heavy metal vehicles. The efficiency problem comes from having to slow said herd to a near stop upon approaching that tiny human.

The city has 430 kilometres of shared bike-pedestrian pathways, which is nowhere near as extensive as its 4,700 kilometre road system. Cyclists in Edmonton often resort to the road because of this — the alternative of sidewalk cycling can even be fined in regions like downtown and Old Strathcona. When the road has to be shared, a few loose safety standards are put in place. Drivers must stay 1m to the side of cyclists, who are encouraged to wear helmets. “Encouraged.” They’re encouraged to wear reflective gear as well for night-cycling, which is when a third of cyclist deaths occur. Policy looks good on paper, but it’s unfortunately common to pass a helmetless, dark-clad night biker going at a leisurely pace.

The city enforces this idyllic idea of “sharing the road,” in an attempt at diplomacy when there should be complete segregation.

Instead, cyclists are squished onto the same roads used by vehicles, where, according to Transport Canada, 64 per cent of cyclist deaths occur every year. Dividing one road between an SUV moving upwards of 70 km/hr and an aluminum frame mounted by some gangly human moving at 20 km/hr in a helmet will turn fatal if someone makes a mistake. Even if helmets were mandatory, they wouldn’t save a lot of lives. The mess that would result from a truck hitting a bike would be far bloodier than that which would result on a sidewalk if a cyclist were to run into an unfortunate pedestrian.

The current commuter culture simultaneously congests traffic and puts cyclists’ easily crackable skulls in the path of a much bigger force.

The inefficiency that comes with having a culture that tiptoes around cyclists is a catalyst for confusion. They wheel around in rush hour traffic, where it’s already less likely drivers will pay attention to them. It’s scary to have these guys jaunting along knowing that I could slip up and they won’t be able to react with enough speed to escape alive. Multiply that threat by the however-many-thousand drivers that make their way to and from work every day and you get a problem.

There’s plenty of room for miscommunication on the road, even more so with cyclists. Sure, they have signals for turns and stops, but these aren’t universally-known like the signal lights of a car. Learning these is not a requirement for one to earn their drivers’ license. So when cyclists signal (and they usually don’t) it’s likely a driver will not interpret them.

Cyclists stubbornly stay on the road, acknowledging the risks that come with riding bikes all over the place. The city’s fine with that. But instead of Edmonton making a commuter-friendly gesture, perhaps actual safety measures would make roads safer for everyone. Force bikes to stay on the sidewalk. Policy like that might feel rude, but at least things would run a lot smoother.

Drivers act in accordance to Edmonton’s pro-cyclist culture: they stop, they slow. They give a wide berth. All giving way to traffic patterns that jar and flow as if … well, there is no flow. Traffic can’t move smoothly when two entities with a huge disparity in size and speed are forced into one space.

The road is designed for cars, not that $4,000 custom build from Redbike.