Biking in Downtown Toronto!!!

We live in a great City for biking....I really should do more but I love walking...you get to see so much more... and that is the problem.

As I walk through the City though, I find myself getting angrier and angrier at the Bikers. First of all, I am walking on a sidewalk...not a sidebike. What are bikes doing on a sidewalk especially when they are adjacent to bike lanes?  I live next to a street that has bike lanes on it, so what are bicycles doing zooming past me up on the sidewalk, going both ways with little or no respect for the walkers and runners that occupy the "sidewalk".

It is then that I notice that the rolling racers are not wearing helmuts and that the Government only mandates those under 18 to do so. Yet, in this Province everyone sitting in a car must wear a seatbelt or you get a tagged...does that make any sense? Yesterday, on a very busy thoroughfare I saw a helmut-less mother with a matching helmut-less child in a jump seat behind her. Is it less money for the tax payer to pay for surgery on bikers than it is for car riders??

Now that we are on the topic...I did not know that rules of the road, such as stop signs, only applied to cars....as a matter of fact, to get out of our street, even though a sign says "Do Not Block Intersection", this seemingly does not apply to bicycles. I have been told by the Police that should a bicycler not abide that message and hit my car, that I am legally at fault. In an accident between a car and a bicycle the car is legally at fault. Go figure!

When Summer is here and in full flush, you do need extra sets of eyes to avoid accidents and as much as it is my favorite time of year, I look forward to the upcoming months when most of the roads and sidewalks will be back to normal. Of course there is always the group of committed who continue through the slush and snow. Do they subliminally have a death wish or are they hoping for a holiday in an Emergency Room.

Don't get me wrong! I am a big supporter of Bicycles when they adhere to the rules of the road but they must be taken seriously. I just think that because bikes are used so much as an instrument of enjoyment, the lines get blurred...common sense often goes down the drain. Please Drive Safely!

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