Letter to the Editor: Are Deforest City drivers the rudest in Canada?

I love letters to the editor that have teeth and ask inflammatory or - at the very least - interesting questions.

Here’s one from the London Free Press (July 21 issue) by Daniel E. L. entitled ‘Cycling in London hazardous’ that might explain why some cyclists ride on the sidewalk, not in the shaky gutters of our fair town.

He asks, not a bit rhetorically, “Is there another city in Canada with more rude, ignorant motorists than the Forest City? I doubt it.”

“A person takes ones’ life in their hands when they venture out, with bicycle, onto the mean streets of London.”


["The fairest vehicle in all the land": photo GAH]

Know what I think? (Hey, stick around. You’ve come this far.)

I don’t know if Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Nut Mountain or Bent Elbow, Saskatchewan etc., have meaner streets than this place I now call home, but I do know the hoods of cars and trucks are tougher than helmets and heads.

The solution: Allow slow speed cyclists on sidewalks until 100 per cent of the city has adequate bike paths. Instead of widening streets and accommodating cars create more bike paths. If the paths are on the street then paint them blue so drivers will learn to see, then look for, cyclists in a particular space. Hurry up and create the next generation of mass transit vehicles (e.g., narrow electric trolleys) to reduce traffic inside the city.

Be careful out there.

***

I admit, I ride on the sidewalk on occasion, and will continue to do so, safely, at slow speed.

Your thoughts.

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