{"id":155987,"date":"2023-05-26T11:59:16","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T15:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=155987"},"modified":"2023-05-26T17:19:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T21:19:44","slug":"share-the-road-campaign-encourages-a-positive-road-sharing-experience-between-cyclists-and-motorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/share-the-road-campaign-encourages-a-positive-road-sharing-experience-between-cyclists-and-motorists\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShare the Road!\u201d campaign encourages a positive road sharing experience between cyclists and motorists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Town of Brome Lake has launched its visual \u201cShare the Road!\u201d campaign for Quebec\u2019s \"Mois du v\u00e9lo\" (<\/i>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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The municipality collaborated with Brome Lake residents and active cyclists for the campaign to create b<\/span>illboards that will be displayed throughout Brome Lake to sensitize the population on road sharing, according to the Town of Brome Lake\u2019s press release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been more of an active cyclist for the past 15 years (\u2026) and I\u2019ve seen an evolution. (\u2026) A lot of people didn\u2019t realize (before) that they could pass over the double line to pass cyclists like you would pass a farm tractor on the road,\u201d explained Poirier. \u201cWe have seen that evolve a lot over the years with the different campaigns, so that\u2019s a good thing.\"<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see now on the highways that cars will go in the second lane if there\u2019s a car parked on the side of the autoroute, which is something you didn\u2019t often see like five years. People are starting to realize that it\u2019s not a bad thing just to (move over a little bit) to pass a pedestrian or cyclist,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One good thing about Brome Lake\u2019s \u201cShare the Road!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drive a car, I go on the street, I drive a car on a regular basis and it\u2019s the same thing with my bike. I see the two sides, but a lot of people that have never gone cycling, they don\u2019t realize the danger when you pass really close by a cyclist,\u201d he said. \u201cI think a lot of motorists don\u2019t realize that passing by a cyclist is really fast.\"<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 <\/span>play their part in order for it to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn important point is to not make the assumption that every cyclist is dangerous on the road. Sometimes you\u2019ll have a car really close by and then we get to a stop and I ask them \u2018why did you pass so close to us? Oh, cyclists they\u2019re always in the middle of the road.\u2019 (\u2026) There\u2019s a lot of people that won\u2019t make a complete stop or they\u2019re just driving crazy, but it\u2019s not a big percentage of people; it\u2019s the same thing with cyclists,\u201d he noted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Caluori, an active recreational biker that also took part in the campaign, echoed Poirier\u2019s 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\u2019s experiences on the road, an important part of avoiding situations of aggression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOften you\u2019ll 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\u2019s necessary for their activity. If you\u2019re driving along, it\u2019s difficult to manage that because you don\u2019t know who is coming out or going in. (\u2026) That\u2019s one aggravation I often hear,\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Caluori highlighted. \u201c(\u2026) 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\u2019t know what you\u2019re going to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Caluori added that it\u2019s \u201cconversations like this, hearing what the cyclist is thinking\u201d that can improve the road sharing experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While we can\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven as a user of the bike or the car, you can sort of say \u2018okay, yeah, I made a mistake. I stepped out on the curb onto the bike lane. Yeah, I almost got hit, I shouldn\u2019t have done that. And how did I know that I shouldn\u2019t have done that? There was a campaign that said that sidewalks were for pedestrians only and I decided to walk in the bike lane,\u201d he highlighted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To celebrate \"Mois du v\u00e9lo,\" <\/i>the Town of Brome Lake, in collaboration with the Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont <\/span>(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<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CIDI reached out to the Town of Brome Lake for comment, but it was not available for an interview.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview with Poirier and Caluori below:<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Brome Lake has launched its visual \u201cShare the Road!\u201d campaign for Quebec\u2019s “Mois du v\u00e9lo” (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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":155992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221,223],"tags":[26406,15845,26380,7477,26379,24238],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155987"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156423,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155987\/revisions\/156423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155987"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=155987"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=155987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}