Deadly Cycling On Arterial Roads In London Ontario

As spring begins to bring warmer days, cyclists are beginning to re-inhabit the roads in London, Ontario. The dangers that were created in previous years continue to do so and will likely cause serious injuries and possibly deaths to those cyclists.

The above photo is an example of one of those dangers: cyclists riding on arterial roadways. The photo shows that the rider is in dark clothing, he is not wearing a helmet and there no reflectors or lighting on his bike. Furthermore his position is substantially further from the curb inviting a passing motor vehicle to make contact.

The weaving pattern of the cyclist’s travel can be seen in the next photo where his bike is angled back toward the curb. While laws require that motor vehicles give a cyclist at least a 1 metre lateral clearance, this view demonstrates the obvious fact that a cyclists motion is rarely a perfectly straight path and so the lateral distance from a passing motor vehicle is sometimes reduced due to that fact. Riding a bicycle is essentially a balancing act where the rider stays upright by making changes to his body position as well as making slight adjustments to steering. So this is how contact with passing motor vehicles can happen.

In our experience at Gorski Consulting the issue of cyclist safety is not being addressed by all involved. Cyclists, drivers, police, city traffic practitioners, politicians, medical practitioners, news media. All these entities have some involvement in maintaining the unsafe conditions that exist. We have indicated on numerous occasions that the causes of cyclist collisions and how cyclist injuries occur ought to be reported and this is not happening. Repetitive incidents of unnecessary tragedies occur, and could be minimized, if both drivers and cyclists were made aware of the details of those tragedies.

At a minimum, cyclists should be warned, that if no infrastructure for cyclists exists on an arterial roadway they should ride on a sidewalk, regardless of what the law says. Selecting a proper route to avoid such arterial roadways may also be an option. As always cyclists also need to understand that they have a responsibility, while riding on a sidewalk, not to endanger pedestrians, particularly those who are more vulnerable such as the elderly and children.