City officials have asked police to begin cracking down on both cyclists and motorists. Police have said they are planning a cycling safety blitz for next month.

Talk about blaming the victim. The five cyclists who were hit were doing everything right and (allegedly) were injured because the car entered their lane and hit them. Even in the case of the man who was injured in Gatineau, who was not wearing a helmet, it still doesn’t make the accident his fault.  The simple fact remains, the vast majority of cycling injuries (as I’m sure many readers can attest) occur because drivers simply don’t think about cyclists, they turn right in front of us, open their doors as we are ridding by or fail to give us the 3m space the law grants us.

Cracking down on cyclists who don’t have a bell or ride through a red light isn’t going to solve this problem. If the city were to take a similar approach to drunk driving, they would have a blitz to ensure everyone wears a seat belt. That would be insane and people would rightly be up in arms about it yet this slides by as two lines at the end of a news report. This isn’t to say that safe cycling programs are a waste of time but seriously, crack down on the thousands of cars each day who fail to follow traffic laws just as you would crack down on people who drive under the influence. That just makes sense so why can’t the city see it?

It is easy to say this was a random act which could not be predicted but I think what this really demonstrates is in order to make cities safer for cycling the municipal government can’t just paint some bike lanes on a road, call it a cycling plan and then sit back. In order to make cycling truly safe, other vehicles have to respect cyclists for the vehicles they are under the law. This necessarily means a shift in how drivers think when they are behind the wheel of a car. It means checking for cyclists as well as cars when they open doors, turn right and fly down the road at night. I believe that both the provincial and municipal government has a role to play in changing the driving culture of their particular city and province. While a previous commenter pointed out that thousands of cyclists co-exist with cars without problems every day, these events clearly show we are a long way from where we need to be.

Finally though, how do you do this:

“He angled into the lane, brushed up against the female cyclist, hit the other four — who are the ones who are in bad shape — and then carried on out,” he said.

Then just keep on driving? He is charged with five counts of failing to stop at the scene of a collision causing bodily harm but in my mind this should be on par with attempted murder. He had no idea if any of the people he hit were alive when he left the scene. His intentions were exactly the same regardless of the condition of the victims, the law should treat them the same not be subject to whether all of the victims survive.

The service will be made available through bike rental stations to be set up at various points throughout the downtown core of both Ottawa and Gatineau. Users will also be able to submit comments and suggestions about the service at these rental stations.

This is, ofcourse, good news. I suspect at this first stage it will primarily benefit tourists, but when fully implemented should help those that take the bus into the downtown in the morning, but need to do some running about during the day.I think that the ultimate idea is to echo Paris’ rent-a-bike system, which is unbelievable in both its scope and use. I was there in the summer (I have pictures, and will eventually blog about my adventures, seriously!), and I think I saw more people using the rental bikes than personal ones.

Some important questions to be answered:

1. What does “various points” mean? I assume that there will be something in the Market, along the Canal, and closer to Bank, but I also really hope that they put something further south in the core as well.
2. Will you have to return a rented bicycle to the same location?
3. How big will the trial run actually be?