I bicycle commute to work every day that there isn’t ice on the road – so drivers see me out there all the time, at the same times of the day that they are out there commuting.
Sometimes, I know they get frustrated with me because I am not fully in the bike lane or not even in the bike lane at all. Why? I’m sure they are thinking. “Get in your lane!”
I am writing because I want to let you know why sometimes I have to leave the bike lane – or why I am as far to the left as I can be in the bike lane. I am not doing this to annoy you!
1. Bike lanes that are adjacent to parked cars create a risk to bicyclists if they bicycle too close to the parked car. It is almost impossible to know if someone in the car is about to swing open the door. Almost all of us (including myself) don’t look or forget to look. I have been “doored” a couple of times by cars. The first time I was going pretty fast and luckily all that happened was I got injured. My first thought on hitting the pavement was, “Oh my god, I hope the car behind stops,” as I lay there splayed out on the pavement in the middle of the lane. Luckily it did.
All this is to explain that I can no longer bicycle close to parked car doors. It is just too dangerous and I have to bicycle as far away as I can without getting too much in the way of the driving traffic. The Boulevard up in Garibaldi Highlands causes the most problem because the driving lane is narrow and there really isn’t room for vehicles, bikes and parked cars to each have enough space.
2. Glass on the road. Unfortunately most debris on the road gets swept onto the bike lanes and shoulders by the passing vehicles. Some of this is glass. A bicycle tire running over glass has a much higher probability of getting a flat tire than a vehicle tire does. Fortunately, the District of Squamish is very good at sweeping this glass up – after I’ve told them. But, before that, I sometimes end up swerving out of the bike land or shoulder.
3. Gravel on the road. This is similar to glass on the road, except the glass could be hidden in the gravel. On a downhill section, such as Guildford Drive going down into Valleycliffe from the highway, another problem is that the skid potential is high.
4. At some intersections, to increase the ease for a car to see me I will bicycle into the road of a vehicle. This is particularly true at Queen’s and Industrial where Kal Tire’s gravel lot usually creates a lot of gravel in the bike lane and I am cycling straight through. Therefore, I have the right of way, and would like cars on Industrial to see me.
Willa Anderson
Squamish
