Everyone is jumping on this issue. I just posted this note on Facebook. You can't compete California to New Brunswick. This Province passed a bike law in 1995 that everyone wears a helmet. Fredericton Police goes after certain cultures that are not wearing a helmet. I should be standing at a corner and called the Police every instance someone rides a bike without a helmet....there are no bike lane....does this means everyone that drives inches by me that I should call the police???? There are WAY TOO many issues to tackle before this one....you can't pass laws by emotions....wait..a young kid was killed on the new Marysville highway...I believe he had headphones while riding his bike...now there's a dangerous issue right there...what about riding a bicycle on the road or highways in December or January????...VERY dangerous if you asked moi....people are force to ride their bike on the streets in Fredericton without helmets because the Park Patrol are hunting down people who dare to exercise...this sport is changing into a elitist sport and I don't like it...because passing new laws for bicycles...study the way we are handing the issue these days.....enough said....
Ok, how about comparing New Brunswick with Nova Scotia, with Ontario, with most of europe, with Manitoba? This has nothing to do with emotion, cycle organizations have been trying to get this passed for years. In a CBC report it was stated that the response from legislators was "our laws are good enough" and now all of a sudden MLA's are lining up to claim they support it. Where were they last year? And fyi, all this does is put a number on the current law. The motor vehicle act states that you have to stay as far to the left of cyclists as possible. So this law simply puts a metre on that number. This is a no brainer that should have been done ages ago with almost no discussion. Because there ARE other issues to deal with. But I don't expect to change the mind of an acadian scotsman:)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous. Enough said.
DeleteIt's all about the money, not safety. If it were about safety, the City of Fredericton would not have created their own city law in order to collect revenue. If the province took the revenue for their provincial helmet law, I bet Fredericton would stop hiring the rat patrol because its about MONEY and not safety. The city keeps pushing this to fill their coffers in the interest of safety. Charles, ask Mike O'Brien if he is willing to strike down the city by-law in favour of following the provincial rule, bet he won't, so it shows its for cash not safety!!!!
DeleteMaybe Fredericton should first deal with the fact we have no separate bike lanes with barriers protecting them from the traffic beside them. This has turned our sidewalks into de facto bike paths. We only lack political leadership to connect up our fantastic trail system with dedicated bike lanes on streets. Posts are very inexpensive to put beside bike lanes and instantly provide a physical and encouraging incentive for safe biking in Fredericton. I would really like to see Fredericton complete our bking system and make it accessible to everyone for recreation and commuting to work and play.
ReplyDeleteAnd here are some compelling economic arguments for dedicated bicycle paths in our cities:
ReplyDelete"Complete streets" save $$ and increase quality of life. This report showcases 37 projects and found many advantages:
!. Safer streets
2. Saving money through safety
3. Encouraging multimodal travel
4. Low costs, big results
5. A whole network for a bargain
6. A strategy for economic development
- Higher employment levels
- Net new businesses
- Higher property values and private investment
http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/03/26/how-bike-lanes-shared-streets-pay-for-themselves-and-then-some/
How Bike Lanes & Shared Streets Pay for Themselves, and Then Some
March 26, 2015