Transportation Choices Sunshine Coast (TraC) is pointing to a crash involving a cycle tourist this week as a warning that something needs to be done about sand and gravel left on the roads from crack sealing.
The crack sealing work got underway along much of Highway 101 between Gibsons and Sechelt earlier this month. The sand is spread on top of the compound used to fill cracks in the road surface to give it traction. The excess sand is then supposed to be swept or washed away. There are several sections of highway where that hasn’t been done yet.
Rat Portage Hill on the Roberts Creek-Sechelt boundary is one of the sections still waiting to be swept, and that’s where Eduard Llado was injured on Tuesday.
Llado, an experienced cyclist from Barcelona, Spain who’s in Canada on a work visa, was on the first leg of a trip from Vancouver to Powell River.
“I was riding on the shoulder and suddenly there was a lot of sand – this kind of gravel. My bike slipped and I couldn’t handle it,” he said. He suffered scrapes and bruises and struck his head on the pavement, but thanks to his helmet he was not seriously hurt.
Llado said he saw the warning signs about loose gravel, and was being careful as he rode, but because there was heavy traffic at the time he couldn’t swerve out of the paved shoulder and onto the main road to avoid the sand that had built up.
“It was like a sandy beach,” he explained. “You might be used to finding dirty shoulders, or a little bit of gravel, but not like that.”
Llado has been staying with a TraC member he connected with through a group called warmshowers.org, a self-described “hospitality exchange for touring cyclists,” and he said he’s thankful for their help and support, and is impressed by the dedication of the local cycling community.
He said he was happy to speak about his accident to draw attention to a dangerous situation and help get it resolved. “It’s nice that there are people on the Sunshine Coast who are not only passionate about biking, but they try to get the best conditions in order to have a safe ride,” he said.
MOTI did not respond to Coast Reporter’s request for comment, but TraC president Tim Howard said the ministry and maintenance contractor Capilano Highways have promised the roads will be swept in time for Bike to Work Week, which starts May 29. For more on this story, see Letters to the Editor.
