on the dangerous winter streets of Edmonton yesterday. City Council has, irresponsibly, encouraged and endorsed all-year cycling on what are always dangerous Edmonton roads, especially in winter (roads largely uncleared this year so far). This is not Vancouver or Victoria.
Drivers here drive like hell, like there’s no one else on the road. Any guy (next-to-nil women would be dumb enough to ride bicycles in winter, methinks) who believed he was safe and protected in ‘bike-friendly’ (city council’s attitude, money wasted on bike lanes in winter) Edmonton was not thinking rationally or using common sense.
Bike riders and deking motorcycle riders are hard to see for many other vehicle drivers. I doubt that the driver of the truck who hit the cyclist while turning even fathomed that it was possible that a cyclist would be on January roads on a busy main thoroughfare. Someone/something that small (much like a pedestrian, even if moving) can get lost in the melee of traffic jockeying.
And I doubt that this unnecessary tragic accident will cause an iota of concern to the bike-blind members of City Council more concerned about currying favor with the 1% bike riders of a longtime hardcore truck and car city. They have repeatedly made their limited, limiting dangerous choices since 2000.