The Town of Brome Lake has launched its visual “Share the Road!” campaign for Quebec’s "Mois du vélo" (Bike Month) to encourage road sharing between cyclists and motorists. With Brome Lake being a popular destination for cyclists coming from near and far, the safety of those on the road is an issue of concern for the municipalityThat is why it decided to raise awareness around the importance of road sharing while reminding the community that cyclists are also parents, teachers, friends, and not just strangers on the road. 

The municipality collaborated with Brome Lake residents and active cyclists for the campaign to create billboards that will be displayed throughout Brome Lake to sensitize the population on road sharing, according to the Town of Brome Lake’s press release. 

Bruno Poirier, an active cyclist for the last 15 years and one of the citizens that took part in the campaign, emphasized that these types of campaigns are needed because they play an important role in the evolution of road sharing and building that collaboration between cyclists and motorists through awareness and education. 

“I’ve been more of an active cyclist for the past 15 years (…) and I’ve seen an evolution. (…) A lot of people didn’t realize (before) that they could pass over the double line to pass cyclists like you would pass a farm tractor on the road,” explained Poirier. “We have seen that evolve a lot over the years with the different campaigns, so that’s a good thing."

Poirier noted that he has had aggressive encounters with drivers on the road before, but that it is not something that he often experiences now. 

“You can see now on the highways that cars will go in the second lane if there’s a car parked on the side of the autoroute, which is something you didn’t often see like five years. People are starting to realize that it’s not a bad thing just to (move over a little bit) to pass a pedestrian or cyclist,” he said. 

One good thing about Brome Lake’s “Share the Road!” campaign is that it gets the message out there that cyclists are not just cyclists, but parents, grandparents, teachers, mentioned Poirier, and that it encourages the population to take into consideration the potential dangers that could arise if cyclists and motorists do not collaborate together when on the road.

“I drive a car, I go on the street, I drive a car on a regular basis and it’s the same thing with my bike. I see the two sides, but a lot of people that have never gone cycling, they don’t realize the danger when you pass really close by a cyclist,” he said. “I think a lot of motorists don’t realize that passing by a cyclist is really fast."

Poirier emphasized that while these campaigns encourage the collaboration between cyclists and motorists to create a positive shared experience and to avoid potential dangerous situations, people have to  play their part in order for it to work.

“An important point is to not make the assumption that every cyclist is dangerous on the road. Sometimes you’ll have a car really close by and then we get to a stop and I ask them ‘why did you pass so close to us? Oh, cyclists they’re always in the middle of the road.’ (…) There’s a lot of people that won’t make a complete stop or they’re just driving crazy, but it’s not a big percentage of people; it’s the same thing with cyclists,” he noted. 

Michael Caluori, an active recreational biker that also took part in the campaign, echoed Poirier’s claims that most interactions between cyclists and motorists are positive when sharing the road, but that these campaigns have the potential to open up that dialogue between cyclists and motorists even more to get a better understanding of each other’s experiences on the road, an important part of avoiding situations of aggression. 

“Often you’ll see a peloton of brightly coloured cyclists, which is also the subject of complaints. These guys bike really fast, they need a dynamic of a group to do their activity, because they use the wind. So often they are two abreast or three abreast, that is against the highway code I believe, but also it’s necessary for their activity. If you’re driving along, it’s difficult to manage that because you don’t know who is coming out or going in. (…) That’s one aggravation I often hear,”  Caluori highlighted. “(…) People like myself, recreational bikers, I like to be outside. I have nothing to prove to anyone so I might be daydreaming, I might be looking at the mountain. I might be distracted and that can aggravate the drive because they don’t know what you’re going to do. 

Caluori added that it’s “conversations like this, hearing what the cyclist is thinking” that can improve the road sharing experience. 

While we can’t measure what we prevent, said Caluori, these types of campaigns can also provide a better understanding as to the rules and code of conduct that each party is expected to follow to make it easier for those on the road to measure what went wrong and avoid potential dangerous outcomes in the future. 

“Even as a user of the bike or the car, you can sort of say ‘okay, yeah, I made a mistake. I stepped out on the curb onto the bike lane. Yeah, I almost got hit, I shouldn’t have done that. And how did I know that I shouldn’t have done that? There was a campaign that said that sidewalks were for pedestrians only and I decided to walk in the bike lane,” he highlighted. 

To celebrate "Mois du vélo," the Town of Brome Lake, in collaboration with the Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont (CNCB), has also put together a program of activities for cyclists of all levels residing in Brome Lake. These activities are offered free of charge or at a moderate price. Details of all activities can be found on the Town of Brome Lake's website. 

CIDI reached out to the Town of Brome Lake for comment, but it was not available for an interview.

Listen to the full interview with Poirier and Caluori below: