Editor:
Re: Passing cyclists will become difficult.
A vulnerable road user is a pedestrian or person on an animal, cycle, motorcycle, or an electric scooter or wheelchair. As stated in the letter to the editor, the provincial government has legislated that people operating a motor vehicle must now observe minimum safe distances when passing vulnerable road users: one metre when passing on roads limited to 50km/hr, 1.5 metres on roads more than 50km/hr, and a following distance of at least three metres prior to passing. This is because vulnerable road users face a higher risk of injury or death from passing vehicles.
However, the cited concern that vehicles may not cross a double line when passing is incorrect thanks to further amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act. From the Provincial Vulnerable Roads Users online information: “If you cannot pass safely, then slow down to the speed of the vulnerable road user, stay back and give them space until you can pass safely. If it is safe to do so, you can cross over a single or double yellow centre line to provide a vulnerable road user as much space as possible when passing. Use your signal, to alert others of your intention, before crossing the single or double yellow line.”
Turns out the government might have thought of this problem and provided a reasonable solution.
C. Czembor
Gibsons
