Born to be wild

As the snow finally disappears, a new menace hits the streets — bikers. Not the old Easy Rider, Harley-Davidson crowd, but well-groomed, otherwise law-abiding taxpayers who tune up their trusty old 10-speeds and prepare for another season of hair-raising misadventures and near-accidents on the streets and bicycle paths throughout the city.

While I must say right up front that yes, the vast majority of cyclists do not fall into the above category, and yes, I count myself as a cyclist as well, although I don’t get out there nearly as often as I’d like.

But anyone who lives near a bike path or on a street favoured by bicycle commuters will tell you that there are enough bad apples to keep the danger level uncomfortably high.

Speeders are the worst offenders, as they know they can zip along with impunity. There also seems to be some tacit misunderstanding that it’s okay to ignore red lights, as if the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists (yes, I looked it up!), will automatically keep you safe. I don’t know how many times I’ve been crossing a street — legally, on the green light — when a bike has raced by me, the rider seemingly oblivious to all the laws being broken.

The east-west bike path that runs through Westmount Park is especially problematic. Many people have reported excessive speed and recklessness. The worst incident I’ve seen myself occurred about two weeks ago, at the corner of Victoria and de Maisonneuve. A man riding a bike with one of those fancy baby trailers actually raced through the intersection against a red light, causing a startled motorist to narrowly miss the young passenger. My first reaction was to shout out an insulting remark about the cyclist’s intelligence, jazzed up with a few of the worst expletives in the newspaper editor’s already jaded vocabulary — but I was on the phone at the time and did not want to appear rude.

Given the increasing popularity of cycling, fuelled by the laudable efforts of municipal councils to extend and promote bike paths, the problem is not about to go away. Local police, who are currently cracking down on such infractions, cannot be everywhere at once. All we can do is stay alert out there and hope that the patron saint of cyclists keeps smiling down on our streets.