Want better bike lanes? Make room for wheelchairs and mobility scooters
So far, Quebec is the only Canadian province that has updated its legislation to allow wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes and low-speed roads.
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Clarity over what can and can't use "bike lanes" is sorely needed in this day of electric bikes/scooters/wheel chairs/mobility scooters etc blurring lines and shifting goalposts. There's been a welcome explosion of micro mobility options and there needs to be clarity around what can go where as it's all over the show at the moment?! It's part a public awareness campaign issue, laws and regs, as well of course a major infrustructure issue.
I'd vote for anything smaller than a class 1 moped (upper speed limit 45 km/h) should be allowed to use the bike lanes.
I would argue that anything that can't reach 35 km/h belongs in the bike lane, and everything faster belongs on the roads. Once you get past, say, 40, you can keep up with cars well enough for it to not really make sense to be in the bike lane anymore.
Then again, a fast cyclist is likely to hit those speeds on flats. And cars will still try to run me off the road even if I go that speed and the road I'm cycling on had a speed limit of 40 km/h.
I meant 40 km/h using the machine's power. There is a different vibe to someone pushing hard to reach 40 km/h on the kinds of streets that have a 40 limit (corner coming up every half mile, stop signs, lights) and someone that just twists their wrist and accelerate to 40 in a timely manner while sitting tall. Drivers react to the two very differently.
Fast cyclists are an interesting case because they're much faster than slow cyclists and incompatible with the bike lane, but they're much more vulnerable than cars in the car lanes.
I guess they're kind of like motorcycles in that way.