New cycling bylaws considered by Regina city council

Cyclists and motorists in Regina could be sharing the road more in the future.

Some newly proposed bylaws in the city would mean that drivers could be fined up to $180 if they pass a cyclist at a speed greater than 50 kilometres per hour, or if a vehicle doesn’t give “reasonable” space when sharing the road.

If the bylaws are passed, cyclists would also not be able to ride on Ring Road but they would be able to go down a one-way street in opposite directions in other parts of the city.

Drivers would also no longer be able to pass a cyclist in the same lane that the biker is occupying.

These and many other amendments were raised in a city report.

Coun. Bob Hawkins originally brought up some of the amendments in April of last year. He says the sole purpose of the motion is to make the city a safer place for everyone using the roads.

“The city’s encouraging other forms of transportation so they want folks to walk and cycle or take public transit. If we’re going to do that, we have to make sure that people can do this safely,” Hawkins said. “I anticipate both drivers and cyclists will obey the rules of the road.

“We used the input from a lot of sources to design these rules. There’s nothing unusual about them and I think they’ll be accepted.”

Some of the amendments in question would be enforced based on certain circumstances, according to Hawkins.

“If you’re driving behind a bicycle, you’ve got to be able to stop if that cyclist for any reason has to stop quickly,” he said. “Depending on how fast they’re going, depending on the condition of the roads, depending on the weather conditions, that stopping distance will vary.

“Some of these involve a judgement call and have to be made carefully in the interest of safety.”

If the bylaws are passed, there could be a campaign to educate people on safe cycling as well as driving with cyclists around. The campaign would be funded using $30,000 from the automated speed enforcement fund.

Consultation on the amendments have involved different cycling organizations, SGI, and the Regina Police Service.

“We just want to make sure that people understand the importance of taking care of each other on the road,” Hawkins said. “I sometimes hear motorists say that cyclists don’t obey the rules of the road and I sometimes hear cyclists say that motorists don’t want to be obey rules of the road.

“I don’t think it’s a question of one or the other. I think it’s a question of everybody obeying the rules of the road for safety reasons.”

More amendments are expected to be raised in the future. One in particular involves making it mandatory that cyclists wear a helmet whenever they’re biking in the city.

“I brought a bylaw proposal before council last year on helmets. It wasn’t successful because people thought education was the route to go,” Hawkins said. “I think education is important, but sometimes you need more than education. And I think that there should actually be a a helmet bylaw, which makes it an offence not to wear a helmet when you ride a bike.

“It’s a personal opinion, not an opinion of the council at the moment.”

Cyclists are happy the city is considering making roadways more bike-friendly, but not all are certain fines are the way of accomplishing that.

Freddy Vandelinden of Dutch Cycle thinks educating people on road safety will be the best way to ensure people share the road.

“I think on one hand the rules are nice but on the other hand, where do we stop putting rules down?” Vandelinden said. “I would start with just enforcing some of the basic stuff we’ve got going on.

“I think it’s education rather than legal fines that is going to be better for people.”

Vandelinden said he believes fines could be deterrents for some people, but they won’t do much when it comes to changing behaviours some motorists might have.

City council is to take another look at the proposed changes on March 31.