<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place" downloadurl="http://www.5iantlavalamp.com/"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State" downloadurl="http://www.5iamas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"/>  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> <o:p> </o:p> <img width=322 height=41 id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C71F79.28953740"><o:p></o:p> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State style="BACKGROUND-POSITION: left bottom; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: url(res://ietag.dll/#34/#1001); BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat-x" tabIndex="0" w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place>’s Conservation Movement<o:p></o:p> To subscribe or unsubscribe to this listserve, go to <a href="http://www.weconserve.ca/" title="http://www.weconserve.ca/">www.weconserve.ca</a><o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The following article can be found on our website at <a href="http://weconserve.ca/articles/?p=29">http://weconserve.ca/articles/?p=29</a>  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Of Bikes and Cars in the Eyes of the Law December 13, 2006<o:p></o:p> I went to court today. Last January, I'd received a ticket for going through a red light on my bicycle. It was at a pedestrian crossing, not an intersection, but a violation nonetheless and I was indeed guilty of the infraction. The fine was $150 and three demerit points.<o:p></o:p> I consider myself to be a safe and alert rider, but like the vast majority of cyclists I will occasionally take liberties. We cyclists consider ourselves more like people with wheels than cars without engines. Probably only Jack Layton and Olivia Chow can claim to have never rolled through a light, and maybe even then...<o:p></o:p> I went to court not to fight the ticket, or even plead for a reduced sentence, but to witness how bikes and cyclists are treated in comparison with cars and drivers.<o:p></o:p> It started with a pre-trial consultation with the prosecutor and the arresting officer. The officer said that I had "blown though the red light" and the prosecutor frowned.<o:p></o:p> Only then did he tell her that I had been on a bike. "A bike?", she exclaimed, and her demeanor changed. Then she was told it was a pedestrian light and not a traffic intersection and that no one had been endangered. The prosecutor recommended a $50 fine and we all agreed.<o:p></o:p> Then came the trial. The prosecutor made her recommendation to the judge, who cut her short saying "Absolutely and categorically not". Bicycles, he said, were vehicles and the law applied equally to cyclists as it did to drivers.<o:p></o:p> The judge could have been lenient, but in a way I am thankful to him for staying to the letter of the law. He could not have made the point any clearer: in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place>, a planet-saving 20 lb. bicycle is subject to the same laws and penalties as a gas-guzzling 4,000 lb. car.<o:p></o:p> Is a bike as dangerous as a car? Look at the Ministry of Transportation stats for 2003 (<a href="http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/orsar/orsar03/" target="_blank" mce_href="http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/orsar/orsar03/">from the Ontario Road Safety Annual Report 2003</a>). The primary measure of road safety used by the Ministry is the number of fatalities per 10,000 drivers. In 2003, this number was 0.97, the lowest rate since records started being kept in 1990. In 2004, there were 6 million registered passenger cars in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place> (one for every two people). There was a total of 246,463 collisions resulting in 77,879 injuries (including 4,798 pedestrians) and 831 fatalities (including 120 pedestrians). 3,654 people were admitted to hospital, requiring 44,096 days of hospital care.In 2003, thirteen cyclists were killed in collisions with motor vehicles and another 2,398 injured.<o:p></o:p> It goes without saying that in 2003 there were no deaths caused by a cyclist or any record of anyone in a car being injured by a cyclist, and the Ministry does not keep statistics on cyclist-pedestrian injuries.<o:p></o:p> Statistically speaking, a bicycle is nowhere near as dangerous as a car. On the contrary, cyclists themselves are the ones at risk. Safe cycling habits are important, but the solution does not lie in equating a bike with a car and a cyclist with a driver.<o:p></o:p> Safe cycling should be supported as a transportation, health, and environmental priority for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place>. Bikes reduce traffic congestion and they produce no emissions. Cycling is good exercise and helps reduce the health care costs associated with obesity.<o:p></o:p> We need more 20 lb. vehicles on our roads.<o:p></o:p> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place>'s towns and cities are already well populated with cyclists, and many more people would join them if the streets were safer for cycling. In a poll conducted for the Conservation Council last May, 47% of the respondents in the GTA said they would ride a bike more often if their were safe routes.<o:p></o:p> Ontario needs a safe cycling strategy that recognize bicycles as a distinct and preferred method of transportation in law, policies, and programs.In particular, the Ministry of Transportation needs to set out a standard policy on cycling infrastructure (uninterrupted shared or dedicated bike lanes on all major streets that give priority and safe passage to cyclists). It needs to assist <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Ontario</st1:State></st1:place> municipalities in implementing a province-wide cycling infrastructure program. It needs to define offences and set fines that both address safe cycling and protect cyclists from dangerous drivers.<o:p></o:p> With these steps in place, organizations like the Conservation Council and bicycling groups across the Province can then promote cycling as a preferred form of transportation with the knowledge that the provincial and municipal governments have taken all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the cyclist.<o:p></o:p> Until then, keep your head up, cycle safely, and take your lane when you need to. You are, after all, just another vehicle on the road.<o:p></o:p> Chris Winter <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>