Sharing time is over

Toronto cyclist’s death should have us talking more about cyclist safety, less about motorist’s fall from grace

Mark Reimer

“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.”
– Mark Twain

I watched with sorrowing intrigue this past week as events unfolded in Toronto which sent shivers down the spines of cyclists across the country. Though the ever important details are still murky, the incident went something like this: Motorist Michael Bryant had an altercation with now-dead cyclist Darcy Allen Sheppard on a busy Toronto street. Whatever the altercation entailed, Sheppard ended up being killed at the wheels of Bryant’s vehicle, with some reports stating that Sheppard was dragged upwards of 100 metres as Bryant sped away.

The fact that Bryant is a former attorney general of Ontario is a superfluous one. Any motorist of lower public profile could have ridden over Sheppard’s body and the results would have been the same. Nevertheless, the infantile pack-animal mentality of the mass media is a hard habit to break and therefore poor ol’ Bryant’s tumble from political golden boy to accused cyclist killer has amassed the brunt of the focus.

This is a shame. Not only for those mourning the death of Sheppard, but also for those who spend time everyday cycling directly in the throws of danger at the mercy of certain drivers who navigate their four-wheeled fiefdom with a mix of impatience and outright hostility at their very existence.

Instead of the “tragic tale” of Bryant, we should take this rare opportunity of substantial media coverage in a cyclist’s death to re-examine the highly unequal relationship which exists between the motorists and cyclists on Canada’s roadways.

Specifically, this relationship involves the belief that transportation infrastructure should cater almost totally to that of the motorized vehicle, with cycling an aberration to be considered haphazardly, when cyclists are even considered at all.

Such a culture of vehicular roadway entitlement exists here in Winnipeg.

Such a culture of vehicular roadway entitlement exists here in Winnipeg. Though designated bike and pedestrian paths are often trumpeted by local cycling associations as a meaningful and relatively inexpensive form of infrastructure which can boost the use of “environmentally friendly” transportation, the vision of Winnipeg brimming with substantial designated bike paths is still far off in a city with such a poor record of sensible city planning.

For example, the planned rapid transit line from The Forks to the University of Manitoba will feature a bike path for two-wheeled commuters. That is, however, until the line reaches the Osborne overpass just south of confusion corner – one of the busier sections the line will cross – at which point, the bike path will end momentarily and force cyclists to cross Osborne to reach the other side where it begins again.

Cyclists cannot even expect that designated bike paths will keep them from being forced into harms way in this city. In fact, from my daily travels it seems as though the City of Winnipeg Transportation Department sees their obligation to cyclist safety as encompassing little more than painting white bicycles on select road shoulders, then re-painting them once rainwater has washed their water-soluble paint away.

The dearth of cyclist infrastructure in Winnipeg ensures that those who choose to ride instead of drive are consistently confined to the limited space which vehicles allow them. It would be unfair to portray all motorists as menaces, the likes of which led to Sheppard’s death. But I would be willing to bet that anyone who rides their bike semi-frequently in Winnipeg has their fair share of horror stories about navigating the world of exhaust fumes and hostility.

While the media has not picked up on it yet, Sheppard’s death should serve notice to municipal officials that investing in bicycle-friendly infrastructure has a greater likelihood of sustaining the lives of cyclists. In Winnipeg specifically, this means a greater commitment to we of the self-propelled variety than some cheap paint imploring us to “share the road.”

Andrew Tod is a University of Winnipeg student.

Published in Volume 64, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 10, 2009)

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