I am writing this letter in response to the article by Greg Neiman on the Comments page in the Aug. 6 Red Deer Advocate under the heading of “Insight.”
I do not get any insight from this article. All I saw was another request for gimme, gimme. What I did get from this article was that because of him and his group’s gimme-gimme attitudes, a lot of money was wasted by the city trying to appease them.
It would do well if the group stopped crying about the lanes and instead started practising some courtesy and rules for bike riding. I do a lot of walking and have only had one bike rider warn me that he was about to pass me from the rear. I do walk on the right hand side, but it is very scary when they are right beside you before you realize they are there. Being that there is no law that requires them to have a horn, their voice would do.
Mr. Neiman talks about sharing intersections. I have seem many instances of vehicles being lined up at red lights and a bike driving between the vehicles to the front of the line, then they cut off the vehicles when the light changes.
Mr. Neiman writes mostly in regards to the lost bike lanes on 39th Street. He states that this street goes past numerous schools and is a passage to the high schools. Does he think these students ride to school? On bikes? He talks of the traffic congestion there, but still thinks it is OK to take two lanes from the vehicles and substitute these with bike lanes.
Edmonton is a city that put bicycle lanes all over the city in the same fashion as Red Deer and a few weeks ago, Bob Layton, of Global News, Edmonton, commented that a man on a bike was riding down a traffic lane, causing vehicles to back up behind them and yet there was a bike lane right beside him. Layton wondered of there was a law prohibiting this crossover of lanes just as there is for a vehicle that crosses into a bike lane.
Mr. Neiman and his group want bikes to have the right of way in all areas of the city. To obtain this, they feel they should be able to ride anywhere in their own bike lanes. They do not accept any responsibility for their own safety.
Lee Hankey
Red Deer