Comment 65651

By 2 wheels good (anonymous) | Posted July 06, 2011 at 13:19:51

Catherine Burden said: "Note: the new bike lane up the Jolley cut is wonderful but where is the bike lane down the cut? Soon enough, someone will be taken out on the down curve or are we supposed to use the new walkway?"

No, please not on the walkway Catherine! Bicycles and EBikes are defined as "Vehicles" under the Highway Traffic Act, and it's illegal to drive "Vehicles" on a sidewalk. As well as exposing you to the risk of fines and points off your drivers license it's also unsafe for you as the sidewalk is too narrow, and puts pedestrians you may encounter at risk.
You have 2 options for descending the escarpment with a bicycle or EBike. Dismount and walk your bike down using the sidewalk, or ride down on the road.
If on the road you should be in the right hand lane in what motorcycle riders call a "blocking position", that is with the wheels of your bike where the left hand set of wheels of a car would be if it were in that lane.
While the law does not specify a speed, other than to say you should not be so slow as to be obstructing the flow of traffic,for safety you should be moving with, or slightly faster than the other traffic on the road. Since this may mean 60 km/hr or more you need a bike / EBike that is well maintained, and a skill set to match.
If that is an issue you might want to consider the excellent adult cyclist training offered by the Canadian Cycling Association, the "Can-Bike" level 1 and 2 programs.
http://www.canbike.net/cca_pages/index.htm
Most of the courses are in Toronto, but they used to run them in Hamilton to train the Hamilton Police bike cops, you might be able to get loaded in on one of those...

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds