February 2017 Newsbrief

The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society               February 2017, Volume 34, Issue #2

President’s Report                                                 John Pringle

Secretarial duties, the website and “taking a stand”

Welcome to Boyd Topham, the Member who stepped up to replace recent Secretary, Clark Woodland. Clark finished his 2-year appointment in December. He very generously stayed on ‘til a replacement was located, and has gone out of his way to welcome Boyd and to communicate secretarial duties to him.  Boyd has been with the Club for greater than three years.  I first rode with Boyd on the ever-popular Dick & Elaine Carpenter-organized McMenamin Hotels tour.  He and partner Suzanne were usually near the front of the pack and always with an ever- pleasant demeanour. More recently, Boyd participated in the Cowichan Valley H & S and he rides occasionally on Allan Buium’s Sunday rides. Thank you Boyd for answering our appeal. We all look forward to working with you as the Board forges ahead with its 2017 plans.

Max McClanahan continues to build our website: What a delight it is to have Max constructing this site. He’s been most diligent, timely and consultative during the construction phase, in not only carrying out his plans for the site, but in resolving upcoming problems (I might add that Bruce McLean has been ever helpful to Max in supplying information from his carefully-kept long term data base).  During late 2016 a request came from the Comox Valley/North Island chapter to access members’ e-mail addresses.  The Club had decided phone numbers only would be made available, and this only by consent. Our policy was supported at December’s AGM: In particular, by the South Island representative who spoke eloquently about the need for the confidentiality of members’ e-mail addresses. Max, however, felt a secure method might be possible, while at the same time protecting members’ privacy rights. The Board accepted his clever approach, deemed “Member-to-Member” (M2M) and is available for use on the website.  Here a member (the communicator), wishing to communicate with another member (the communicatee), merely enters the recipient’s name in the system’s “recipient field”. The system will then provide a name or names, one of which can be selected by the communicator.  She/he will send a message, and if the communicatee desires, will respond. Standard e-mail is then used to pursue the “conversation”. Thanks Max for a simple yet effective approach to facilitate intra-Club communication, yet maintain members’ privacy rights. 

On a more serious note, one of the South Island Chapter’s more prominent members recently ended up with a broken femur, and other injuries after tangling with a pickup truck at a crossroads (where four roads meet) controlled by traffic lights. Our member proceeded into the intersection with a plan to pedal directly through to the far side. The truck driver, after delaying his start, which our member felt was due to the driver yielding the crossroad to him, suddenly burst into the intersection and immediately turned left into our member, destroying the bike and seriously impacting our member’s well-being. An “accident” it has been declared, with no charges laid by the attending constable. Worse, the constable asked the victim if he’d been riding in the crosswalk, a misdemeanour, thus rendering the victim guilty. Having none of this, our member is pursuing the driver in civil court (“A civil case is a lawsuit that usually deals with contracts and/or torts. Torts, generally speaking, are wrongful (negligent) acts that result in damage or injury.” A lawyer has been contacted. In conversation with said lawyer, it was learned that a BC driver, insured by ICBC, and involved in an accident with a cyclist (not insured by ICBC) will almost certainly have ICBC lawyers aiming their skills at finding the third party, here the cyclist, guilty. Appalling if true. None of the above has yet been proven in court, but I’d like to know what members feel. Are you concerned about the infrequency of charges laid to seemingly negligent drivers? Is this a case where the Club might take a stand? To throw our collective weight behind our member? It’s most upsetting that a driver who may have been “driving without due care and attention” has inflicted short- and long-term injury and discomfort on one of our members and not charged. (By the way, the Club’s third party liability insurance is of no use to this member.) I await your response. 

Welcome New Members
Victoria Laube Balderson ON
Larry Wasik Burnaby BC
Sherri Audet Dunrobin ON
Janice Helle Enderby BC
Tim Helle Enderby BC
Vicki Elmer Eugene OR
Tom Grant Eugene OR
Gloria Nafel Huntington Beach CA
Lally Stonebridge Kelowna BC
Suzanne Robert Mtt Currie BC
Laurel-Lea Shannon Ottawa ON
Mona Wemyss Ottawa ON
Martin Freeman Ottawa ON
Anne Gilmour Port Moody BC
Rochelle Dubetz Surrey BC
Blair Whelan Surrey BC
Donna Magnolo Surrey BC
Richard (P.G.) Huijsmans Victoria BC
Larry Powell Victoria BC
Dale Featherstonhaugh Victoria BC
Ann Marie Liggat White Rock BC
Upcoming Hub and Spokes
Upcoming Tours
“Share the Road” Found to Contribute to Confusion and Conflict

The Delaware Department of Transportation has removed all “Share the Road” signs in favor of signs stating that cyclist “May Use Full Lane.”

Written by: Geffen Semach  

Share the road             Photo By: Eric Allix Rogers

In November, 2014, the Delaware Department of Transportation announced that they would cease to use the “Share the Road” plaque on license plates and uninstall all “Share the Road” traffic signs across the state. Many assumed that the cycling advocacy group, Bike Delaware, would be infuriated by the announcement. As it turns out, Bike Delaware were the ones to request the signs’ removal. But why?

Despite its good intentions, the “Share the Road” directive had some serious problems – its issues sprung from a general sense of confusion and disagreement between road users on who the sign was directed at, at what it was telling them to do.

For bicyclists in Delaware (and elsewhere), “Share the Road” was interpreted to be for motorists, telling them to just, you know, be cool, give people on bikes some space. But for drivers, the sign was there to tell cyclists: “Don’t slow me down, stay over to the side so I can pass.” After years of yelling “Share the Road!” at each other, it was finally realized that not only does the sign not help, it actually contributes to conflict between the various modes.

As most bicyclists have probably experienced, a huge conflict for bikers and motorists is when the biker “takes the lane” (i.e. cycling in the middle of a travel lane). As a driver, it is understandable to become a little impatient with the slower pace of the person biking in front of them. However, there is a reason cyclists will sometimes stay in the center of a lane; riding at the right hand edge of a travel lane is an invitation for cars behind them to pass. On narrow streets, most people on bikes are not comfortable being passed in their lane, so riding in the center of the travel lane ensures that motorists will only be able to pass by changing lanes or briefly moving into the oncoming traffic line.

While “Share the Road” was originally intended to make this clear to motorists, it ended up having the opposite effect. Bike Delaware eventually concluded that “Share the Road” is just ‘feel good’ placation without any safety benefits. Their advocacy led to the state dumping the ambiguous message in favor of a more precise one: “Bicyclists May Use Full Lane.”

Recently, researchers George Hess and M. Nils Peterson of North Carolina University conducted an online survey of nearly 2,000 people to find out what various road signs meant to them, and their findings corroborate what Bike Delaware has been saying for years. Survery respondents were shown pictures of various traffic scenarios and street designs, and asked to interpret those signs in those contexts.

When confronted with the “Share the Road” message, respondents did not feel cyclists had the right to occupy a full lane. Sharrows, on-street painted markings to indicate the best line of travel for bikes, only helped a little. The survey did conclude, however, that the sign indicating that bicyclists “May Use Full Lane” was the clearest indication of a cyclist’s equal right to the road.

On a four-lane road, both sharrows and the “May Use Full Lane” sign doubled the amount of people who felt in that context that cyclists are allowed to bike in the center of the lane. Regardless, on two-lane roads, neither sharrows nor “Share the Road” signs communicated that motorists should wait for a safe gap in traffic to pass in the adjacent lane effectively. The “May Use Full Lane” sign, however, did.

It was acknowledged by Hess and Peterson that the pool of respondents may not have represented a truly objective sample group; respondents were recruited via Twitter and appeared to bike more and drive less than the typical American. Subsequently, given the skew towards bikers in the survey, the results suggest that, if anything, the average American is more confused by the “Share the Road” sign than the survey indicates.

The “Bicyclists May Use Full Lane” signs are a huge improvement in making traffic situations more clear for the motorist and cycler alike over the previous signage. While the protected bike lanes are under construction and we’re still left “sharing the road,” at least it’s clear: we do, in fact, get to use the full lane.

Newsbrief

Published at least ten times a year by The Cross Canada Cycle Tour Society, a non – profit organization for retired people and others who enjoy recreational cycling. The NEWSBRIEF is  available, in colour, to paid up members, on the CCCTS website.

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