Last year, Transport Minister Robert Poëti set up a focus group on cyclist safety, which met 6 times between July and December. Comprising representatives of cyclists, the CAA, police officers, municipalities, transport companies and various ministries, the group was tasked with providing input for the Minister's reflections on the modernization of the Highway Safety Code.
To consult the results of the discussions, click here.
Vélo Québec participated with great enthusiasm and interest in the work of this group, seeing it as a great opportunity to modernize the Highway Safety Code to promote sustainable mobility.
Here are our main recommendations, which were discussed by the focus group:
- Incorporating the precautionary principle which recognizes that all road users must behave prudently towards the most vulnerable.
- Authorization for cyclists to travel in a 1.5 m wide corridor to the right of the roadway (and not necessarily to the extreme right as at present).
- Authorization for cyclists to follow the indications of the pedestrian light (to give them a few seconds' head start on traffic - currently prohibited).
- A clear definition of overtaking distance that a car must maintain when overtaking a cyclist (minimum: 1 m in towns and 1.5 m on rural roads).
- Allow cyclists to slow down instead of coming to a complete stop to a stop sign (shape regulations to reflect current practice, taking into account that a bicycle is not a car).
- Sharing sidewalks between pedestrians and cyclists in certain situations where the environment is hostile to cyclists (tunnels, viaducts, bridges) and the right for children to cycle on the sidewalk (what is currently prohibited).
- Redefining the notion of accident to include situations in which we have to take our products away from our customers.
- Elimination of demerit points to the driving record of offending cyclists (a driver's license is not required to ride a bike; moreover, this measure creates two classes of cyclists: those with a driver's license and those without.).
- Cleaning up visibility device regulations to eliminate the need for reflectors on pedals, and consider reflective strips and accessories to be just as valid as reflectors.
The Minister has announced that he will table a bill in the next few months and that he will subsequently hold a parliamentary commission. We look forward to seeing how our suggestions will translate into the new Code, and whether cyclists' realities will finally be recognized.
Suzanne Lareau
President and General Manager
