Bicycle Law Enforcement
Wheel Life column - 25 March, 2000
by Todd Litman and Suzanne Kort - Victoria Transport Policy Institute

Today's recommended bike route follows the shoreline around greater Victoria. It's a delightful route. There are lots of places to stop along the way to rest, including the restaurant at the Oak Bay Marina and cafes in Cadboro Bay.

Treat any recommended bike route as a jazz musician treats a melody: a basic theme upon which you can create endless variations, depending on where you start and how far you want to go. We recommend carrying a local street map whenever riding a new route, in case you get lost or want to try an alternative version.

You may want to ride just a portion of this route, or perhaps you'll want to go farther up the Saanich Peninsula. Most cyclists ride this route counter-clockwise to be closest to the water, but you can always ride a loop in reverse for a new experience.

On a nice spring or summer day you are likely to see many other cyclists on a route like this, often equal to the number of cars. Cycling is growing in popularity in our community, which is good news, but also means that it is increasingly important to treat bicycling as a serious form of transportation. We've written a lot about what cities can do to make roads that are better for cycling. This week we'll explore an equally important issue: cyclists' responsibilities for following vehicle traffic laws.

We see far too many cyclists violate traffic laws. Rogue cycling endangers all road users and tarnishes the reputation of all cyclists. Critics often cite bicycle scofflaws as a reason to limit cyclists' rights and resources. This is faulty logic, law violations by some members of a group should not reduce the rights of other members, but there are plenty of people looking for any reason to ignore cycling, so we shouldn't give them excuses.

Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition (GVCC) president John Luton discusses this issue in the current Cycle Therapy (http://www.gvcc.bc.ca/advocacy/enforcement.htm). He suggests that police should increase enforcement of serious bicycle traffic law violations: riding against the flow of traffic, running traffic signals and stopsigns, riding at night without lights and riding on sidewalks.

We agree, although we believe that the law prohibiting sidewalk cycling should be changed to allow low-speed cycling on sidewalks that are not crowded, since many children and some adults need this option.

But effective bicycle law enforcement requires more than simply giving police a quota of bicycle citations to write. It requires educating police as to cyclists' responsibilities and rights. Local police have ticketed cyclists for "blocking traffic" when they were simply riding legally and safely in the right-hand lane, an error that police would not make if they were properly trained in bicycle safety practices and laws.

Effective bicycle law enforcement also requires more than simply levying fines. The fines are simply too high; most police do not want to give a child a $75 ticket for a bicycle law violation. A better approach is to allow first-time violators the option of attending a bicycle safety education program as an alternative to a fine.

This type of program has proven popular with police, parents and cyclists, since it emphasizes safety education and encouragement, not just punishment. Unfortunately, no police departments in our region have such a program. The Victoria Bicycle Advisory Committee was working to develop such a program just before it was disbanded four years ago. Bicycle education and law enforcement should be a top priority for any bicycle advisory committee.