I don’t really advocate anything. That’s not meant as a political statement, I’m just not an advocate; however, after listening to people bitch about Vancouver’s new-ish bike lanes in pretty much every social situation over the past while, I thought it was time I became a bicycle advocate. To take immediate action I started this post, created a title, and saved it into my drafts where I leave everything I’m unsure what to do with. Several weeks later came my inciting incident, so to speak.
I was riding my bike along 12th Street in Vancouver just past Main Street when a Vancouver Police officer pulled up alongside me on his motorbike.
“VPD. You ran a red light,” the officer barked.
I nodded, still somewhat confused, and tried to figure out what he was talking about.
“You’re just like a car. You need to obey the law — just like a car.”
“Okay,” I said.
It’s strange to just say okay in answer to a question, but that’s all I could say without being flippant.
“Just like a car. $167 fine,” he barks.
“Okay,” I say again as I try to maintain eye contact with him while trying to maintaining forward momentum without skewering myself on some road borne obstacle.
“Just like a car,” he repeats again.
This is where I started to get annoyed. In some cheeky way I was tempted to pull into the middle of the lane, rather than off to the side, and ride at 20km an hour, which would have brought traffic along this busy road to a tortoise-like crawl. Instead I continued about my business stopping at red lights, just like a car, as the traffic cop followed along behind me. Eventually I got to a red, made a right turn, and left my cop stalker behind hopefully to wonder about my future willingness to comply with his Napoleonic request. Continue Reading
