Entry tags:

bicycles, toronto, urban note

[URBAN NOTE] "Cycling and the City: Driver Confrontations"
Earlier today at blogTO, Danielle D'Ornellas filed a post--"Cycling and the City: Driver Confrontations"--recounting her recent near-miss with a minivan while biking.

Leaving work around 3:30pm this afternoon, cycling west on Dundas past McCaul, I was nearly run off the road and clipped by a side-view mirror. The vehicle was a tan mini-van which swerved abruptly from the left lane to the right lane to make a last-minute turn onto Beverley. While doing so, he either didn't see me or just horribly misjudged the space and clipped me. With my heart in my throat, somehow I managed to holler at him and regain my balance, but he obviously didn't hear me and continued driving up the street and out of my sight. Considering the amount of time I've wasted chasing reckless drivers, I chose to forget about it and get to my destination. But to my surprise, I found myself behind that same van a few streets up and decided to follow them to their parking spot.

By the time I pulled up to the van there was nobody in the driver or passenger side, but I saw movement in the back and ended up confronting the wife of the driver. Blinking at me while I shakily insisted I speak with the driver, she just kept saying that he "must not have seen me", which should never ever be an excuse. To add to the mess, I saw that the driver had two toddlers in car-seats strapped in the back. Not only was he endangering me, but potentially his children. When he came out, I told him as much, adding angrily that he should really be considering the safety of those around him as a parent. I don't know if I got through to him but he listened to me and apologized all the same.

D'Ornellas points out that, all too often, drivers of motor vehicles in Toronto don't bother for whatever reason to take note of cyclists, with often fatal results. Other people in the comments point out that many cyclists are terribly negligent, not following the rules of the road. I can personally testify, based on what I've seen and experienced, that both are right in equal measure. Sadly, as the flamewar in the comments may illustrate despite D'Ornellas' being basically in agreement with my take, both sides are eager to talk past each other. It's a pity since, as a commenter pointed out, "some of the posts here are pretty crazy - its all just metal and rubber people, stop getting so worked up. Cars, nor bikes, are going anywhere... learn to get along or you're going to kill each other."