Many persons and organizations in the region of London Ontario are working hard to suppress information about cycling dangers that exist on local roads. Why this is happening is complicated. While there is considerable propaganda distributed throughout official circles that cyclist safety is an important matter, when it comes to actually implementing real solutions, that propaganda falls heavily short.
The example shown in the two photos in this article demonstrate the lack of recognition by cyclists to the dangers around them. Note that the cyclist in the above photos is not wearing a helmet and is carrying some kind baggage suspended from the left handlebar. Above all, cyclists need to understand that they need as much clearance from a passing motor vehicle as possible. Suspending baggage from a handlebar will reduce that clearance. And if the baggage becomes snagged with the passing vehicle a dangerous result will take place. But many cyclists do not comprehend that something loose and soft like a handbag could become snagged. And they do not appreciate that such limited snagging could have dire consequences. Such basic information is not passed onto unsuspecting cyclists because those who investigate cyclist collisions do not pass on their findings to the cyclists who need to know.
Many cyclists develop a blind faith in the belief that the government is there to protect them. So when the Ontario Provincial government introduced legislation a number of years ago that required motor vehicles to stay a lateral distance of 1 metre away from a cyclist this was one of the ways in which cyclists were lulled into a sense of imaginary safety. Cyclists would now be protected because if a motor vehicle driver killed them the driver would be in the wrong. And the driver could go to jail. Too few understand that the value of the door prize won by being right and dead is not worth dying for.
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