Cyclists ticketed for taking the bus lane
Ten cyclists each got a $128 ticket this week for riding in the bus lane on Sherbrooke East. One outraged cyclist here says the law means cyclists need to ride in the centre lane with motor traffic, which makes no sense – but that’s what it says.
Joey 08:27 on 2019-09-13 Permalink
I’m not sure what the ideal solution is – probably that cyclists should be allowed to ride in reserved lanes, since the effective alternative is that they are banned from major streets. I do know, however, that the worst possible solution is to issue mega tickets en masse and keep the vague and contradictory rules in place. Projet Mtl needs to take a break from social media boasting about ruelles vertes and come up with a legit standard.
LJ 08:38 on 2019-09-13 Permalink
The police need to be more consistent too. I was riding in the center lane and was honked and yelled at by cops to move to the curb “where cyclists are supposed to ride.”
dhomas 09:41 on 2019-09-13 Permalink
Close to Viau metro, they had this neat shared bus/taxi + bike lane. You can kinda see it here (if you zoom in, you can even see the street sign announcing it):
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NxMuU8hEVWGoiS5v7
I wonder why it didn’t catch on elsewhere? I mean, it’s not as nice as a full on bike path, but it seemed like a good compromise for exactly this type of situation.
kb 09:49 on 2019-09-13 Permalink
I saw this happening yesterday morning. There were cops on Bordeaux and Dorion on Sherbrooke giving out the tickets.
As usually happens, cars going west on Sherbrooke try to get across on a yellow and end up having to stop completely on the crosswalk. One cyclist (not one who was getting a ticket, but one who had a kiddie trailer attached to her bike and had to manoeuver out into traffic to avoid this car) mentioned this to the cops giving the tickets. Out of the three cops there – not one cared to even say something to the driver.
Priorities!
Chris 22:29 on 2019-09-13 Permalink
Joey, sometimes the issuing of ridiculous tickets can be used by activists to get things changed.
They may have luck in front of a judge. After all, the Highway Code section 487 says “A cyclist must ride as close as possible to the edge or right side of the roadway”. It says roadway, not lane.
http://legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/ShowDoc/cs/C-24.2#se:487
CE 10:07 on 2019-09-14 Permalink
I remember there was talk about this being the rule years ago so I tried to ride on the right of the car lane beside the bus lane on Parc. The experiment lasted about two blocks before I went back to the edge of the bus lane. The car drivers were honking and going crazy and the buses refused to pass me on the right. I’ve been riding against the curb in the bus lanes ever since.
MtlWeb 15:20 on 2019-09-14 Permalink
@dhomas City announced Viau lane as a bold pilot project in July 2014; Gazette had a story on it. Have tried it and cannot compare vs riding on Parc.