I had to cringe when I read the disinformation in Doug Coulson's letter regarding the speed of cyclists. Claiming the average recreational cyclist goes 34.9 km/h is flat out wrong. While a hill can easily assist a cyclist to attain that speed or higher, that is far from the typical speed most of the time. Legal e-bikes have the electric assist stop at 32 km/h. Only non-recreational cyclists are able to sustain speeds over 30 km/h on the flat. Even when I was younger and fitter, I could not average even 25 km/h on a given trip.
On my old commute, I had a hill near the beginning where I could easily surpass 50 km/h (the limit at the time). Many drivers have the attitude that, of course, they should pass a cyclist because they can always go faster. It was very common for drivers to go 60 or 70 in an effort to pass me. This occasionally led to drivers nearly causing a head-on collision. If they had waited a few seconds, they could’ve easily and safely passed me as I lost momentum.
Drivers cause the majority of crashes, so don’t try to scapegoat cyclists.
J.D. Gibbard
Saanich
