Riding Bare-Handed

I ran some errands yesterday morning on my bike. As I was leaving, the temperature stood at around three or four degrees (C). Not a cold to bring Amundsen or Franklin to mind, but it still felt mildly winterish out.

I wore a toque under my helmet and had on my winter-weight gloves. I was ready for the cold. But in the time it took me to go to the first store on my list and make my purchase, perhaps half an hour, the sun had come out and the cold was going away.

Because I had forgotten a receipt I needed for another of my errands, I briefly returned to my house. While there I switched my toque for a Lycra tube (I think it is meant to be worn around the neck, but I like it around my head and ears when I need something to cut the wind). I also ditched my scarf and switched my heavy gloves for lightweight ones. As I got on my bike to start part two of my trip, I decided that I should probably unbutton my coat. At this point I was wishing that I had gotten around to repairing the zipper on my windbreaker last fall…

By the time I got down to Queen Street it was feeling downright spring-like. It was very sunny and the temperature had risen to ten degrees. As I got on my bike to return home I removed the Lycra tube from my head and even took off my gloves. It felt unusual to ride with no gloves for the first time in months. Riding bare-handed is a sure sign of spring.

Licence to Ride

The other day I witnessed an almost comic example of clueless cycling. A man slowly glided his bike across Danforth Avenue, a major Toronto street, forcing a driver to have to slow down and then change lanes in order to avoid the cyclist. I’m not sure what was going through this man’s mind as he slowly made his way across Danforth, but I can make a better guess at what was going through the driver’s mind...

I remember reading a letter to the editor by someone who thought cyclists should be licensed and tested just as motorists are. This seems like a sensible idea to me. A report by Ontario’s coroner that was released in June 2012 found that of the 129 cycling deaths that occurred between 2006 and 2010, 44 were blamed on the actions of the cyclists involved.(1) I think it is time to bring some seriousness to the way cycling on city streets is approached.

Although I have noticed an improvement in cycling behaviour over the past several years, there still exists a Wild West mentality to cycling in Toronto. Some cyclists take the rules of the road seriously, but many still don’t. I don’t think obeying traffic rules should be optional. In fact I would be happy to see police handing out tickets to cyclists, an event I have yet to witness. Police do occasionally launch ticketing blitzes directed at cyclists, but I would rather see them enforcing the rules every day.(2)

Testing and licensing cyclists would ensure that all cyclists are aware of the traffic rules, and would hopefully reduce the number of deaths and injuries.

1. http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=187427
2. http://www.cp24.com/news/police-dish-out-tickets-in-bicycle-safety-campaign-1.949200