The title… compassion is a word I referred to in my last post. A word I heard a distraught and angry courier say repeatedly on CP24 (Toronto TV channel) a few hours after the death of his friend and fellow cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard.
Compassion is definitely not what I am sensing from Toronto drivers and some newspaper columnists. This article in Friday’s Globe and Mail by columnist Marcus Gee is one example in a string of articles since the much publisized death of Darcy Sheppard that highlights my point. They are using his death as a way of shaking the public finger at all cyclists and laying blanket accusations that all cyclists run red lights, and ride unpredictably.
There are a number of new (and frankly uninspired) buzz words floating around – the supposed “War on Cars” perpetrated by “militant” cyclists. I am all for the police enforcing road rules that apply to cyclists, and insisting that we all live by the same rules (I am guilty of breaking the odd traffic rules, I’ll admit), but what I dont understand is why the extremely tragic events that have dominated the headlines in Toronto and across Canada have become not an opportunity for change, but an excuse to lay blame.
I read the Globe and Mail every Friday and Saturday, and will continue to do so, but with this article from Friday and others with a similar tone earlier in the week, I wonder whats their inspiration – maybe they have been prompted by Michael Bryant’s PR machine, or maybe the pent up frustration of driving next to “militant” cyclists is now overflowing onto the normally neat and clean pages of the Globe and Mail.
Compassion is an important word to remember; both for drivers and for cyclists. Since I posted my last entry, detailing my close call the day after Sheppard’s death, I have had another friend hit and taken to hospital in an ambulance with a neck brace on. He sustained no serious injuries but remains in alot of pain.
The risks involved in cycling in Toronto remain quite high, and the result of a car/bike collision almost always results in much more serious damage to the cyclist (reports also suggests that vehicles ARE in fact to blame for a majority of the accidents) … so no matter our frustrations and motivations, lets try to use some compassion and understanding fo the real risks of cycling in this city, and be mindful of the serious damage a car can do to a cyclist.
UPDATE: Over at Bike Lane Diaries you can read their September 5, 2009 entry about a place that recently showed some compassion for cyclists…
