Since I moved to Victoria from Alberta a year ago, I have enjoyed wonderful weather, great people and some of the best walking/biking trails around. It is so nice to be able to bike and walk the entire year without the presence of snow. I commonly walk along the Lochside Trail from near Mount Doug right into the downtown area. The trail is nicely divided into north and south-flowing sections.
My beef about these trails is the lack of etiquette regarding bike users. On average, I will be walking south along the trail and have about 10 per cent or less of bikers passing me from behind indicating their presence either by ringing their bell or saying “passing on your left”. That’s about 90 out of 100 bikers passing without regard to the people they are passing. Many of these bikers are travelling at great speed, often between 30 and 50 km an hour.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have these bikers pulled over and given a wake-up call with a ticket. Will it take a major accident to make these biker’s aware of their responsibility? A walker suddenly moving to the left or pointing to something on the left and get their arm broken by a sudden passing bike.
Barry Duncan
Victoria