As more and more people are opting to use bicycles for transportation in the Comox Valley, the Comox Valley Cycling Coalition is stressing the need for people to brush up on their skills for riding in traffic.
The coalition, which has been operating in the valley for close to two decades, has been offering courses on how to be safe and street wise for just about as long. The idea is for people who want to ride bikes to come down, learn some specific skills for being in traffic on a bike, and to feel more comfortable and safe navigating the Valley on a bicycle.
"The biggest challenge actually is ... people don't know what they don't know," said Margaret Harris, a member of the coalition who teaches the two-hour "Come Cycle with Us" Educational Social Rides. "Very often it's about trying to get people to understand that it's worth taking a course. They say they don't need one, they know how to ride a bike, but it's been a big challenge for s to actually encourage people to take a course and find out what they don't know."
The courses are more social rides, where they lead a group of people out for a ride. After about 20 minutes of teaching, they set off and teach skills along the way. They demonstrate how to pass through certain intersections or how to act in specific, real world scenarios, and then explain why they made those decisions. Each ride ends with a refreshment stop.
"We're trying to make these rides suit the person who's wanting to do this," she said. "That way we're not forcing anybody to ride where they really, really don't want to go, but we're encouraging them to say this is doable."
Harris said that while some of these skills may seem like second nature to an experienced person riding a bike, to someone who is new to it or is coming back to cycling after years of not riding, it can be a different story.
"If people have come to especially e-bikes later in life, when they last rode, they may not have had they may not even even had gears," she said. "They may have had very basic bikes and they're not used to using gears efficiently."
Though it may seem like the courses on offer are essentially Drivers Ed for people on bikes, Harris said they were more about making smart decisions on the road so that everyone can arrive at their destinations safely.
"We assume that people who are coming to take a course with us are capable riders. They can ride a bike," she added. "But they may or may not know some of the tricks. Things like having the pedal in the ready position, being in a low gear so that when you stop, you can pull away smoothly, and the bike handling skills as opposed to the actual road rules."
Harris said that there are a few bad habits that she's noticed over the years. These are things like not shoulder checking, relying only on cycling mirrors, not knowing where to position themselves on the road when making a left turn, not knowing to ride with the flow of traffic in bike lanes, as opposed to against traffic, route creating, and not knowing they have the right to take the lane when they need to. While some of these are rules of the road, many of them are actual skills that riders might not know without actually getting out and riding.
Harris has actually talked to a few people who ride on the wrong side of the road, and they "turn around and say, 'Well, it's safer.'
"Even though they may know that it's incorrect, in their perception in their perception, they feel that it's safer, which it really isn't."
The gap between the perception of safety and actually being safe can be a hindrance for people who want to ride a bike.
"There's a percentage of people who will ride sort of regardless," Harris said. "They'll ride with the Mack trucks and the buses, no problem. There's a percentage of people who will never ever get on a bike ever. Then there's that whole big middle chunk, which is a huge number of people, who would like to ride if if it felt safer."
Harris and the Cycling Coalition hope to close that gap. Harris said that she was particularly concerned when she heard of a young person on a bike who collided with a man walking on the sidewalk in Campbell River.
"It was just one of those situations where I could understand why he was there," she said. "With no good infrastructure and perhaps if he hadn't understood about route safe route finding, didn't know of an alternative route, didn't think of taking an alternate route where he could ride on the road, who knows?
She added that the courses "more than anything else to keep (the people on bikes) safe ... Motorists generally, and there's always an exception, ... are quite respectful if cyclists are riding correctly and well. They get frustrated with bad cycling by the same token that cyclists get frustrated with bad driving.
"I ride my bike as though every driver is out to kill me," she added. "Because if I do that, even though I know they're not, I'm paying so much attention that I'm keeping myself safe ... I think it is important as a cyclist if we want to build cycling, we should be respectful to drivers."
"Anytime a driver does something really really well, I thank them," she added. "My theory being that if I thank them and smile, maybe they'll do the same again next time. You know? I think it's about trying really hard to build the sort of relationship we'd like to have between different modes of transportation."
Those interested in learning safer cycling skills can visit the coalition's website at c.
