The recent incident of a pickup truck driver ramming into the back of a local competitive cyclist and sending her flying through the air horrified not just the cycling community, but parents, drivers and anyone with a sense of decency.
Megan Barnes lives in North Saanich, but spends a fair bit of time practising her skills at the velodrome track in Colwood. The fact this 14 year old’s terrifying ordeal took place on a rural Saanich road broadened the scope of this story and ironically got the message and the shock factor out to more people. This plucky young lady is lucky to be alive.
While the vast majority of drivers would not even begin to think about aggressively using their vehicle as a weapon in such a dastardly and cowardly way, the incident made us think about roads around the West Shore where cyclists can sometimes be in peril.
Let’s face it, many drivers operate their vehicles above the speed limit on a regular basis, and when that happens on roads not designed for speed, road users on the edges can be in great danger at times.
Take Metchosin Road, for example. Built primarily as a country road to connect that rural community with Colwood and ultimately Langford, its minimal shoulder in spots means cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders must trust drivers to give them an appropriate berth when passing.
Other roads outside the core areas of our West Shore municipalities place pedestrians and cyclists in similar situations, as the construction of sidewalks and bike lanes catches up to the pace of development.
It’s true, certain cyclists – including some riding racing-style bikes and wearing spandex – feel a sense of entitlement when riding on the road and take dangerous chances that put drivers in a precarious positions. The majority ride safely and stick to the side of the road as best they can.
While isolated incident, this shocking case shows how quickly things can turn when a moment of road rage overtakes a person. As drivers we need to respect the right of other road users to be there, and not begrudge their presence, thinking roads are the sole domain of vehicles.