In the gutter or in the road?

This year I have new digs in Toronto about 5km from the office just for during the week. Saves that long bus ride from Barrie every day. A sweet, simple life in T.O!

I had a little encounter riding home from work tonight along St Clair Ave W.

For those who know it the road is two narrow lanes each direction with the new raised section for streetcar tracks between eastbound and westbound sides. The default Toronto speed limit of 50kph applies and most seem desperate to do 60, though in this section traffic can only reach those speeds mid-block in the race to the next red light. Average speeds, counting time sitting at lights or waiting for people to make turns, is probably not much more than 20kph when traffic is moderate judging by the way I see many of the same cars at light after light during my little commutes.

I was properly taking the right hand lane and proceeding at a decent pace, maybe 25kph up that little grade, when an overtaking white van decided to buzz me. An obvious attempt to intimidate or 'teach the cyclist a lesson', he passed within half a meter (actually less) as he cut through my lane, though there was plenty of clear space ahead in his lane. This was three or four seconds after my last shoulder check. Traffic was loud enough that I didn't pick up on him until he was almost beside me.

As I came up to the line of cars at the next red light a guy in an SUV stopped beside me and put his passenger window down. "You keep riding like that you're going to get yourself killed".

I explained this was the safest way to ride, following the same best practices and course the police bike patrols base their bike training on (true - CAN-BIKE 2). He seemed surprised. "Well I guess most drivers look where they're going, but you won't catch me doing it."

He seemed a nice, reasonable guy. Pity we didn't have time to discuss it further.

Buddy in the white delivery van (forgot the van's first licence plate digits after chatting with the guy in the SUV, but it was "xxx 1EH") had no problem looking where he was going. He knew exactly what he was doing.

At the red light the van was just the second vehicle ahead. I'd briefly considered going up to him for a friendly conversation about safe passing, but after my short talk with SUV guy I judged there wouldn't be enough time for a meaningful exchange before the light went green ...

SUV guy may turn out to be right in the end. None of us knows what the future holds. Any of us can be killed while driving, cycling, crossing or just walking beside roadways. They're the most dangerous place most of us ever go near thanks to bad human behaviour and inadequate enforcement. Someone like an Antonio Cellestine could run any of us down. But cycling vehicularly is still safer than driving.

Had I been riding slowly, inches from the gutter as subordinate cyclists do, and as SUV guy probably thinks is safer, I'd have been buzzed by fifty or a hundred vehicles before I got home instead of one. Many of those fifty or a hundred drivers would have divided attentions, worrying about who might be closing up in the left lane as they squeeze beside me in the right, or thinking about their dinner or their day's work. Emotionally-immature-delivery-van-man on the other hand was giving me his full attention, just me, as he cut across my lane. His entire focus was on making his point, but also making sure he missed me. He wouldn't want to make trouble for himself or scratch his van if he could help it.

When are we going to make responsibility for the safety of others the most important element of driver training, licensing, and enforcement?

Share the Road, Share the Planet.