Blame the Victim
Sometimes the approach to problems taken by the City of Ottawa and its institutions boggles my mind, yet nobody seems to notice. On cbc.ca this evening there was an article discussing the fate of the male driver charged with 5 counts of leaving the scene of a collision after colliding with running through 5 cyclists on Saturday morning in Ottawa’s west end. In the end he got bail, which does make sense as, unless he gets behind the wheel of a car he is really at zero risk to re-offend. The article then goes on to talk about how the previous few days have been pretty bad for Ottawa’s cycling community. However tacked onto the bottom of the article, at the very end comes this gem:
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?
I agree with your general sentiment, but some errata:
- The guy in Gatineau was apparently riding against traffic, according to the Sun’s coverage, IIRC.
- I forget the specific statistics, but “the vast majority of cycling injuries” do not occur due to motorist fault, but are falls, hitting potholes, etc. and don’t even involve other vehicles. Most bicycle-motor vehicle injuries occur at intersections, not from behind, as the two recent Ottawa collisions were.
- The law does not “grant us” 3m, or 1m or 3 feet. The law requires vehicles to pass each other safely. Ask the Minister of Transportation about this, and they’ll say this means passing in the next lane, and that a 1m passing law is not necessary. Ask the police (who are actually responsible for interpreting the law at the level of enforcement), and they may say as long as you weren’t hit nothing was wrong (actually they do generally follow up on my complaints of unsafe passing).
The cycling safety blitz is one of many ineffectual blitzes the police do every year. They’re scant, unfocused (in the sense that 300 or so tickets over a month across 7600km of roads barely reaches a fraction of the people committing a given infraction, whatever it is), and as you suggest tend not to focus on people risking harm to others. For example, their “pedestrian safety” campaign where they threaten pedestrians to “walk like your life depends upon it” is certainly blaming the victim, and doesn’t affect the factor of unsafe and inattentive drivers.
I’d also criticize those who say that these collisions underline the importance that we have segregated cycling facilities in Ottawa. For one, you can never fully segregate the cycling facility–they’ll have to cross roads at some point, even if you pair off all 7600 km of Ottawa’s roads. But more importantly, this is yet another form of blaming the victim: by moving cyclists away from cars, you’re not addressing the fact that motorists are driving unsafely! In fact, by reducing the number of interactions motorists have with cyclists, by removing the cyclists from motorists’ frame of mind, you’re giving motorists fewer reasons to care and think about cyclists while they’re driving, making it more dangerous for people to cycle anywhere there isn’t a parallel cycling route (or if it’s littered with pedestrians like our pathways are).
The two lines that concern me most is not the cycling blitz, but the line about how police are investigating whether the cyclist in Orleans was riding within the bike lane. That lane, if it is where I think it is, is one of the first bike lanes we had in the Ottawa area, and is woefully narrower than the standard width used today. And even if the cyclist was riding outside the bike lane, he may have had a good reason for doing so–it was too narrow, it had debris in it, etc. It may not even have legal status as a bike lane anyway. All this to say that the cyclist being outside of the bike lane is no excuse for the motorist not avoiding him. In this way, bike lanes are becoming ‘bike ghettoes’, as one person put it, where cyclists are barred from riding anywhere else.
Comment by Charles A-M — July 23, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
In Holland, the majority of people own bicycles, and cars and bicylces are co-xisting in densly populated areas without too many problems. This is due to the fact that children are taught at elementary shool how to negotiate traffic on a bicyle, and motorists are made aware during their driver’s training of cyclists, and their rights on the road. Bicycle lanes exists on the majority of roads (and are never combined with pedestrian lanes,who-ever thought this up in Ottawa needs a reality check). It all boils down to education. Most motorists here are not aware of the rights of cyclists, the local (and national) newspapers could do us all a favour and run an educational article or better still, multiple articles on the road rules. I have cylced in 6 different countries, and the dutch (without their helmets, babies on the back and front of bikes seem to have it all sorted out, and yoy rarely see cyclists there NOT stopping at red lights etc, and cars have a helthy respect for cyclists, because they know that if they hit one, the insurance companies are very hard on thm.
Comment by Inge Clark — July 24, 2009 @ 11:12 am
I am an avid cyclist, regular car driver, motorcyclist and pedestrian who regularly negotiates the streets of downtown Ottawa by all means of transport above. One of the biggest problems that I see on our streets is a disregard, disrespect and ignorance for the potential implications of stupid moves - whether it’s a car driver cutting off a pedestrian or cyclist, or a cyclist cutting across the sidewalk, a motorcyclist weaving in and out of traffic, or a pedestrian darting out into traffic. People don’t take the time to consider the what if… what if I knock that cyclist off his/her bike because I’m on my cell phone while driving and I veer into the bike lane… well maybe you’ll kill the person, or send them to the hospital with a broken leg that takes 6-8 months of pain and suffering to heal.
I see so many irresponsible actions on a daily basis on our roads from all roads users that it’s difficult to place the blame on any one type of user; and challenging to determine how best to improve the safety of our roads.
Certainly increased awareness of the importance of road safety will help - emphasizing the serious harm that can be caused by not following the rules of the road. A focus on road safety for both motorized and non-motorized vehicles would help to improve awareness in general.
I also think that our government licensing rules are far too lenient. Yes we have graduated licensing, but it’s far too easy for anyone to get a driver’s license, and there is no retesting - so people who develop bad habits over time have no recourse for identifying and correcting those bad habits. I often wonder how some people could have passed their driving tests giving their abysmal driving habits; and I’m certain that they wouldn’t pass a re-test without further driver training. If we had mandatory driver re-testing every X years under strict testing conditions, some of our bad drivers would end up in driver re-training to help them improve their ability to safely operate a car or motorbike.
If vehicle licenses were truly managed as a privilege and not as a right (as is often stated by the police & authorities) it would be more difficult for poor drivers to get or keep their licenses.
Finally stricter traffic safety enforcement would also improve road safety - enforcing the rules on both drivers and cyclists - plainly the police need to issue more tickets to both drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians for breaking the rules of the road.
Comment by Mark — July 24, 2009 @ 2:58 pm
I was googling cycling blitz and came across your blog. Thought I would share my experience from this morning. I was pulled over today on my bike by Ottawa police (which I must admit was totally valid). He let me go on a warning but I had some very choice words for me. Specifically he repeated numerous times that in his opinion cyclists were the bigger part of the driver/cyclist problem (which from an officer on a motorcycle seemed a bit ironic). I didn’t argue too much for obvious reasons - but it did give me some insight into how (at least one) officer views the dynamic between bicycles and cars. If he was a regular cyclist / cycle commuter would he would have the same opinion? (I assume from his use of the term “you cyclists” that he doesn’t cycle much). Over the years I have built up certain techniques (which occasionally involve breaking a road law or two) out of a strong sense of self preservation. While I understand that doesn’t justify my actions I believe if others, for example police officers or politicians, took the time to try it for themselves they would see that things are not always great for cyclists in certain parts of the city.
All in all my lessons was learned. One dumb action labelled me as a “problem” cyclist (which is something I feel really bad about) and that I need to be more conscious of the image I’m projecting for all cyclists. I think overall the problem with cyclists/motorists is complicated and I applaud all those who seek to make it better. Overall, I do feel that appropriate enforcement of traffic rules on my fellow “problem” cyclists might help to make things better in the city as long as it is balanced with fair enforcement on the motorist side (my personal gripe is innapropriate passing). It would also be nice to have those enforcing the rules trying them out (in other words - I challenge all officers to try cycle commuting from home to work for a week).
PS - If you are interested in the details - I was heading west from Bank & Hunt Club during the morning rush trying to get to the Airport Road. At the stop light (Daze I believe) with a load of traffic behind me (including 2 transports and a bus) I crossed the red because there was no through traffic on Daze. My plan was to get to the airport on-ramp before anyone needed to try to pass me near the transitway underpass.
PPS - Have they ever considered something like increased fines (2-4x normal) for motorists who commit traffic violations on cyclists (similar to work & school zones)?
Comment by Bird — July 29, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
[...] Blaming the victim?: Police target cycling safety in August blitz. See what Adam said in the other place. [...]
Pingback by Mike Powell Fanclub » Radio Topics, August 4th — August 3, 2009 @ 10:46 pm
This city is a revenue generating machine. They will use any excuse to make money, including “cyclist safety”.
They have even used the road constuction on Rideau as a cash grab, by creating a “detour” for westbound traffic on Rideau that routes it onto King Edward going north to Quebec with only one street to turn back west into the market. Of course, this street has a no left turn sign. They have then assigned several cops to lie in wait for anyone turning left and fine them. They are likely making about 500 bucks an hour on this little scheme. Some detour . . . go to quebec and back just to continue west on Rideau.
Comment by EN — August 4, 2009 @ 8:44 am