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Bicycle couriers
singled out
Toronto Star, February 20, 1994
Several nights ago, I was riding my bicycle home along Bay St.
accompanied by a friend and co-worker. We are bike couriers and had
just put in nearly 10 hours each of heavy riding.
The traffic was harsh and unforgiving, as usual. We were riding side by
side but we were taking up no more room than a cyclist in those winter
conditions should. A police car pulled up beside us and the officer
within rolled down his window and yelled that we should be in single
file.
This comment was entirely within his jurisdiction. However this is a
prime example of how biased motorists can be toward cyclists in the
city core. The lane in which we were riding is a designated curb
lane reserved for buses, taxis and bikes Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 7
p.m.
At the moment my friend and I were chastised, I couldn’t help but
notice that our curb lane was packed with non-bus-like, non-taxi-like,
plain everyday cars and it was nowhere near 7 p.m.
Yet the officer chose to ignore all the illegal autos in the curb lane.
This was our space but not in the eyes of the police officer who chose
to single us out. I found this absolutely maddening.
Cyclists take up very little space on the road and often go the speed
of traffic, if not faster, in some situations. We deserve some space.
The sheer fact that there are bikers willing to brave minus 40C wind
chills deserves some respect by others on the same thoroughfare.
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