HAAS PARTY #20: My Days Are (Still) Numbered
Revisiting a post from 2018.
In March of 2018, I wrote a blog post (on a different blog, but really fairly similar to this) about the inevitability of me being hit by a car while riding my bike. I’m sharing the post again below, because I was given a disturbing reminder today about how little has changed about cycling in Toronto.
This morning, a cyclist was killed in front of my office by a dump truck driver, and I happened to look down on the scene moments after. It is too early to know what transpired and how, but regardless of “fault,” the sight of the person’s lifeless body in the road has deeply shaken me. Despite the progress the city has made in the past six years in adding new bike lanes and making cycling safer, there have been equal or great progressions in people’s entitlement and selfishness (or maybe it seems that way because I just turned 40). Unfortunately many of said people routinely get behind the wheel of a vehicle.
The accident happened on a stretch of Bloor Street that has bike lanes, but there was a construction dumpster sitting at the end of the bike lane which would have forced cyclists to move out of the bike lane at some point in order to get around it. Whether or not this caused the incident today isn’t the point (a reminder that cyclists are allowed to occupy a lane of traffic), the point is that someone or some people working for some construction company decided they could park that dumpster there regardless of the fact that it makes things more dangerous for cyclists and drivers. Bike lanes are so frequently blocked by vehicles that I don’t normally think twice about having to go around them. Why are they parked there? Because it’s easier. It’s more convenient. Faster. The thing you need to do will always feel more important than what someone else is doing. But how often does prioritizing your convenience put other people in danger?
To be clear, I am not saying this is a “drivers vs. cyclists” issue. Some people are selfish, reckless assholes, and some aren’t. Some drive cars, some ride bikes, some take the bus. I am saying that I’m tired of the people that vehemently object to the installation of more bike lanes (currently happening in Toronto about a stretch added to Bloor Street West) or object to making High Park car free on weekends (yes, just on weekends). I don’t believe they object for any reason other than it inconveniences them. These people seem incapable of understanding that they live in Toronto, the most populous urban area in Canada. As if not having bike lanes will magically fix traffic congestion!
I’m admittedly rattled and angry about seeing a dead person today. I’m not writing this because I think I have a solution or to say “all drivers are bad” or that “no cyclists ever break the rules of the road.” It’s because I’m tired. Tired of people being selfish and staring at their phones while they drive. Tired of people running red lights for left turns (or in general) because it will save them 45 seconds. Tired of people objecting to infrastructure that is part of living in a city. Tired of people not understanding how bike lanes, when being used properly and not being obstructed, provide a safe transportation alternative. (They can also improve that area’s business activity.)
So, I leave you with what I wrote six years ago. It’s about a different situation, but captures many of the things I am still feeling today.
This past Monday, my best friend was hit by a car while riding his bike. The driver ran a red light roughly five seconds after the light had changed. Witnesses said she was texting. My friend was out training with his racing team. They had stopped and waited for a green light. They were in the clear. The driver was more focused on her phone than the road in front of her.
Somehow, my friend is fine. Nothing worse than some cuts and bruises and, I would imagine, a really terrifying experience to show for it. The cops came and the driver is going to be charged thanks to the witnesses that stayed at the scene. But given some of the precedents set for drivers killing cyclists, I can’t help but feel like she’s going to get a (relatively) small fine and that’ll be it. Maybe she gets her license suspended for a week. Even though she nearly killed someone over a text message.
I wish I was more angry about this. I wish I was more angry at the driver for almost killing my friend. I wish I was angrier at the government for not having harsher punishments for distracted driving. I wish I was outraged that the convenience of drivers is seemingly valued above the lives of everyone else.
But none of it surprises me. The day I started riding a bike as my main form of transportation 15 years ago is when I realized that I was not as important as a car or the driver within. On a bike, I’m a nuisance on the road. An obstruction from making that yellow light. A five-second delay in getting to the meeting you’re 15 minutes late to already.
After hearing about the accident, another friend said to me that there are two kinds of cyclists: those who have been hit by a car and those that will be.
Every time I get on my bike, that thought never really leaves my mind entirely. I’ve come close enough to being hit by a car enough times (both on my bike and as a pedestrian) that I know it will happen. I do everything I can to avoid it. I stop at all red lights and stop signs. I use bright front and rear lights when it starts to get every remotely dark. I wear a helmet. I do all of the hand signals.
None of it will be enough. I will eventually be hit by a car.
Just so we’re clear, I’m banking on me having similar luck to my friend. I don’t have a death wish, I just understand the risks of riding a bike that have been, in large part, enhanced by our society’s love affair with the automobile and now the smartphone. I accept these risks. Something that is very easy for me to say because I have so far managed to avoid them.
A constant refrain from drivers is, “You’re kind of asking for it. Why don’t you just take public transit?” The reply I generally have to that is, “Why can’t you lock your phone in your glove compartment? Why can’t you leave 10 minutes earlier? Why can’t you think of anyone but yourself?”
The answer, I think, is that they don’t have to. They’re in a car.