Dear Editor,
Re: “Death traps,” Feature, Nov. 18.
I appreciated Geordie McGillivray’s open letter to our mayor and, similarly, I would consider myself a “commuting cyclist.”
We moved to Richmond more than 12 years ago so that I could commute to work.
I commute, year-round, roughly 2,200 kilometres within Richmond but also we, as a family, like to ride around Richmond in the summer.
We have great areas to visit and ride. While commuting, I make sure to use my front and rear lights, wear a helmet, as well as bright/reflective cycling gear.
In the past, both my high school son and I have been hit by inattentive drivers.
We were fortunate we weren’t badly hurt.
Richmond should be a great place to commute and cycle around. However, there has been, up to this point, a half-hearted attempt by city council to make it so.
We enjoy year-round cycling weather, a flat geography and plenty of places to go to and see.
Unfortunately, the cycling lanes/paths are unconnected and disjointed.
Other areas, as has been pointed out, are quite dangerous and we’re very fortunate to have avoided more injuries and deaths on Richmond’s roads.
A good example is River Drive, east of the (SkyTrain) North Arm Bridge.
This 200-metre stretch of road has ditches on either side, so a pedestrian/cyclist has no shoulder to be on in case of vehicle traffic.
I have even seen a person in a wheelchair traveling down this stretch of road.
When I contacted the city about this, I was told that the budget for these kinds of road improvements was already spoken for.
It may make the list to be improved in upcoming years’ budgets, but I (and others) should take an alternate route until such time.
So, one of the main roads that accesses the North Arm Bridge for walkers, cyclists and joggers is unavailable to all cars.
The irony is, of course, cars can’t actually use the bridge.
City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend said in the article that cycling lanes are added to larger projects.
I get that, but, as we’ve seen, that makes for a slowly built and disjointed cycling network, with no apparent larger plan or strategy in place.
The article said that $300,000 has been spent on traffic safety improvements around Richmond for 2016.
While that sounds like a lot of money, what does it really buy?
I checked the capital spending budget for 2016, and that is half of what it will cost to replace the artificial turf field at Richmond High.
So, I’m thinking that it doesn’t buy much road safety.
I cycle to work for health, environmental and economic reasons.
Another spin-off benefit is that there is one less car adding to traffic during my commute.
If we want to encourage and make it safe for more people to do the same, then more needs to be done.
Jeff Hickling
Richmond
(Editor’s note: Geordie McGillivray will be launching a bicycle column to run every two weeks in the Richmond News.)
