Calgary’s speed limit on pathways is supposed to be 20 km/hr. That’s only a suggestion for a lot of riders
Calgary pathways and sidewalks are often scary these days. A simple stroll can turn dangerous or even deadly.
Just about everything with wheels can now comes with an e-motor. The humble pedestrian faces high speed e-bikes, skateboards, scooters and even unicycles.
The racing bikers don’t need motors. They can hit 50 km/hr and some get pretty close, even on a pathway.
Calgary’s speed limit on pathways is supposed to be 20 km/hr. That’s only a suggestion for a lot of riders. They ring a bell — or not — and expect pedestrians to get out of the way.
Often they don’t slow down even when they’re racing toward families with little kids. The magical bell is supposed to absolve them of all responsibility.
Before the wheelers get worked up (and they will, guaranteed), l’ll say they are welcome to lecture me after they’ve taken a 2,000-km bike trip.
I did that once, riding from Toronto to Sydney, Nova Scotia on my old Gitane. Then I took the bike to France. Parisians laughed at me for riding a racing bike on cobblestone streets.
Unlike many Calgarians, I don’t object to the parallel bike paths on city streets. I have no problem with the plethora of e-gizmos, just those people who ride them like irresponsible idiots.
I’ve seen this from both sides and say with bleak confidence: somebody is going to get killed on a Calgary pathway.
A few months ago a poster on Reddit described how he got hit hard by an e-scooter on a sidewalk in Inglewood.
The rider yelled at him for not getting out of the way and then took off at high speed, leaving the victim “bruised and battered.”
The fine for such reckless behaviour is supposed to be $400. Good luck getting the city to impose it.
Recently I’ve witnessed some truly alarming scenes on the Elbowside pathway in Mission.
Scene 1:
Pedestrians were startled by the sudden appearance of a bizarre e-motorcade. At least 10 riders raced behind a motorized unicycle piloted by a guy outfitted like a Roman gladiator.
There were e-skateboards, e-scooters and e-bikes. They were going at a hell of a clip, en masse, with no regard for pedestrians on the pathway. The only escape was to jump sideways and pray.
This was plain arrogance, completely disrespectful of all the city’s pathway rules (maybe because those rules are rarely enforced).
Scene 2:
Three families with tiny children barely at walking age were having a relaxing time on a fine fall day.
A middle-aged man and woman appeared on e-bikes. They weren’t going at extreme speed, but fast enough to do serious damage if they hit someone.
They sounded their bells as they approached groups but did not slow down at all. In an instant they were among the families, expecting everyone to clear the way. The families froze in shock.
All good motorists anticipate what pedestrians might do and adjust accordingly. This crucial skill seems to vanish on the pathways. One sensible option — stepping off the e-vehicle and walking for a moment — rarely occurs.
Scene 3:
A teenager on an e-scooter was moving very fast on the pathway. If his scooter is limited to 20 km/hr, he was squeezing every bit of juice out of it.
Once again, families and children were walking casually along. Two family groups were slightly staggered on each side of the path.
This knothead didn’t ring a bell or lower his speed. Weaving slightly, he blazed through the families. Children within inches of him were in danger of their lives.
My family have largely abandoned the beautiful pathways to these speed demons who couldn’t care less about the rivers or the wildlife.
We retreat to quiet neighbourhoods where we don’t have to check the raceway every 30 seconds.
The solution should involve a serious city crackdown on pathway and sidewalk speeding. But there’s no sign city hall has the slightest interest in policing low-emission travel.
The losers are the lowest-emitting travellers of all, the walkers.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald