Just recently, at the height of the summer, we learned that in Montreal 42 times more fines to cyclists than in Toronto, at just over 12,000 annually. In 2018, it was the amount of cyclist offences that made the headlines, having risen by over 400% when the new Code came into force. Looking at these figures, the uninformed reader might assume that cyclists in Quebec, and Montreal in particular, represent a terrible danger to their fellow citizens, which the authorities have finally decided to tackle.
And yet...
Yet the road toll for cyclists has been steadily improving over the past decade. Although more and more Quebecers are getting on their bikes, and despite the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, the number of victims injured or killed while cycling is at an all-time low, and we naturally hope that this figure continues to fall.
Yet it is still and always motor vehicles, and especially trucks, that kill on our roads: in 2018, the number of deaths involving a heavy vehicle rose by 5% compared with 2017. And it's still vulnerable road users who bear the brunt of road insecurity: pedestrians, especially those over 65, are dying in increasing numbers on our roads. A trend that the 23,000 fines handed out to Montreal pedestrians every year have failed to curb...
It begs the question: are the numerous cyclist citations really the best way to improve road safety?
Let's clarify right away: Vélo Québec has never opposed tickets issued to cyclists for clearly risky behavior (failure to obey red lights, lack of lighting at night, dangerous overtaking, etc.). We are in constant dialogue with the SPVM to help guide its actions with cyclists. We would also like to highlight the success of the «Troque ton ticket» operations and the introduction of the’devices for measuring cyclists' overtaking distance. It's also worth noting that in Montreal, a bicycle city on a North American scale, cyclists have long been the focus of police attention.
But aren't we ripe for a more in-depth discussion of the priorities and principles that should guide road safety interventions?
This would require burying the myth of equality between different road users, brilliantly deconstructed in this recent Australian article. When the Highway Safety Code was revised in 2018, Vélo Québec argued that a principle of fairness should prevail instead. Forcing a cyclist to come to a complete stop at a mandatory stop sign, designed to slow motor vehicle traffic, seems counterproductive to us. We therefore continue to call for stops to be treated as yield signs for cyclists. Not that cyclists should have the right to speed through the intersection, but rather that they should give way to the user who arrived first at the intersection and give pedestrians absolute priority. We are also campaigning for Montreal cyclists to be able to make right turns at red lights. The SFDV has been banned in Montreal to protect... pedestrians and cyclists.
We're betting that when the Highway Safety Code is adapted to cyclists' reality, they'll embrace it, and the number of fines will drop! Police forces will then be able to concentrate on the real cause of road insecurity, namely people behaving dangerously towards others, whatever their mode of travel.
Happy back-to-school!
Suzanne Lareau
president and general manager
