Bike Safety Tips from Olivia Chow

And now from my favorite MP, some bike safety tips.

It makes me warm inside that Olivia is presenting bike tax petitions in Parliament and that she rides her bike to Parliament Hill - as I found out on my trip to Ottawa when I came across a familiar bike, an oasis in a car-dominated city.

Tags:

bike safety

politics

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

Bike Dominated

Thu, 08/16/2007 - 12:38

Ottawa actually has much better bicycle infrastructure than Toronto. They have as many km of bike path / lanes as Toronto, which a fraction of the population.

I used to be a courier there as well. I found that mostly the drivers were about the same as in Toronto, except for the Hull buses (look out).

Matt Rennick (not verified)

Bike Safety

Thu, 08/16/2007 - 13:17

Pretty cool - although I think she could have elaborated a little bit on what to do with right-turning cars at intersections.

If the driver is ahead of you and has their signal on; you should either get behind the car and wait for them to turn before proceeding or hop into the left lane and pass the car on the left. Making sure they see you while passing on the right, while safer, is not the right thing to do - the only instance where this is really the right thing to do is when you are already beside the car at the point they decide to make the turn.

Another thing to watch out for is people that will speed up to get in front of you then make a quick right turn - a friend was hit two days ago by a driver doing this. Why can't you people wait the 10 seconds it'll take for us to pass through the intersection to make your turn? Dickheads!

Darren_S

Two faced.

Thu, 08/16/2007 - 16:26

Ms. Chow's office, when a City Councillor, had the worst record for getting enforcement for cars parked in the bike lane. Cannot even call it a record, they simply did nothing. This just reeks of political opportunity to make fun of the painted lady PM.

Michael (not verified)

white light

Thu, 08/16/2007 - 16:40

Being visible is great, but that white light on the back of her helmet is a bad idea! Always go white on front, red at back.