Does every city in Canada have an activist bicycle community and city hall defending scoff law cyclists while advocating for unneeded, traffic slowing infrastructure?
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That is how it is in Toronto.
Toronto Councillor Stephen Holyday held a town hall to discuss the city’s plans for new bike lanes.
It was a good thing for him to do. People have concerns. There are places that bike lanes fit and places they don’t.
One of the speakers at Holyday’s event took to the mic to talk about his frustration over cyclists riding in groups, delaying traffic, and he was angry. He said he, “feels like driving them over with his car.”
That is a strong opinion, and perhaps one he could have left out, but it is a rhetorical flourish, not a threat.
David Shellnut, who styles himself the bicycle lawyer, released an open letter to Holyday.
“Should any cyclist be deliberately targeted in the wake of your town hall, we intend to place blame and legal liability in all quarters for such reprehensible acts,” he wrote.
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Should that happen the perpetrator should be arrested, and if convicted, jailed as far as I am concerned.
Perhaps Holyday should have said, for the benefit of the humour impaired who can’t tell a threat from hyperbole, that we don’t advocate violence.
But Shellnutt needs to dial it down for several reasons.
First of all, according to several lawyers I spoke to, there is no legal connection between the speaker at the event and the councillor to anyone who takes it upon themselves to perpetrate a criminal act.
No one is calling for running down cyclists.
Secondly, as a supposedly responsible and informed lawyer, his constant defence of bad behaviour only encourages it from the worst of their community.
He took the cyclist’s side when the police handed out speeding tickets to cyclists in High Park.
Some of them were running into pedestrians, yet they and Shellnutt angrily insisted that they have the right to effectively do what they like.
I get calls and texts all the time during my NEWSTALK1010 radio show from cyclists who defend running red lights when, in their precious opinion, it is safe for them to do so.
Not too long ago my radio team and I stood at John and Richmond monitoring drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
Far and away the highest number of law breakers, in numbers of incidents and massively in terms of percentage, were the bicycle riders.
Through the red lights, up onto the sidewalk, and the wrong way down the street. Sometimes they didn’t even stay in the generous bike lane provided along Richmond.
Our little study one time at one intersection is not a conclusive scientific study, but it goes beyond just an opinion about their behaviour.
The city’s agenda is evident in a video I was shown of one street over 24 hours.
The city sent a snowplow down the bike lane a half dozen times. Not so much in the street and only a literal handful of cyclists used the lane.
I would think that if Shellnutt wants to advocate for cyclists and improve their standing and reputation in the city he would be calling for them to be scrupulous in their following of the law to stay on the good side of the debate.
But no.
So on we go.
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