National Post: Urban Scrawl - The hazards of cycling in the city

Ah, from the mouth of babes. While Alex Nevitte, 16, has no intention of giving up her clean, green commuting machine, she constantly faces hardships on our roads every day. What is a student cyclist to do? The National Post welcomes her following contribution to Urban Scrawl: What is the deal with motorists, specifically car and SUV drivers who think they are entitled to the entire road under all circumstances?

This summer, embarking on my first full-time summer job, at a Rosedale daycamp, I decided to commute from my home in north Toronto, by bicycle. Talk about trial by fire! I’ve encountered several greedy and unreasonable motorists who never hesitate to take far more than their share of the road and who waste no time screaming at any cyclist willing to demand their fair piece of the road as well.

Bicycles are vehicles and so are entitled to a lane of their own just as any other vehicle is. Usually — and generously — cyclists move to the side of the road to allow faster moving vehicles to pass. Why do motorists never show the same respect for cyclists? The hostility I’ve encountered on the streets of Toronto as a cyclist is astonishing. Once, biking home from the beach a car sped by so closely that its side-view mirror actually brushed my thigh! If this idiot had pulled any closer to me, I would have been knocked off my bike.

And for what? So he could be the first to wait at the red light 100 metres away? Not only are drivers in Toronto showing nothing but hostility for cyclists on the road, but the conditions under which cyclists have to ride are pathetic. Cracked concrete, potholes and poorly resurfaced roads make riding in Toronto a complete hazard.

If you’ve ever been on a bike, you would know that a small pothole may be a breeze for a car to driver over, but for a bike it can practically knock you off. To illustrate my point further, I work at Mooredale Day: I was riding home on Glen Road, and the side the road was a complete disgrace.

The potholes and cracks were so big I could barely keep my balance. To avoid being tossed off the bike I pulled a little farther away from the curb into the lane, only to be honked at by a driver! As the driver passed she waved her arms and yelled at me to move closer to the sidewalk. Not only was this completely ridiculous for the reasons mentioned above, in this case the motorist was able to pass me without even slowing down because there was a dotted line separating the lanes and no oncoming traffic.

The motorists populating our streets are not only ignorant of the laws pertaining to cyclists and unsympathetic, but also extremely wasteful. Oil is a non-renewable resource that harms our environment and is a huge source of conflict among nations. Vehicles that run on oil, such as every SUV, car, truck and minivan in Toronto are only inflaming this growing problem and polluting the very air we breathe.

In contrast, bicycles use absolutely no gas to run, do not in any way harm the air and (shockingly!) actually benefit those who ride them. At a minimum, cyclists should be treated with equal respect to motorists and so the next time you see someone toiling away on their bike to get from A to B, show a little sympathy and appreciate the sacrifice we cyclists are making.

Photo of Alex Nivette by Peter J. Thompson for National Post