Getting Insurance Should Be Like Riding a Bike

Helmets Aren't A Good Enough Guarantee

Bicycle safety training in Ontario. photo courtesy of Can-Bike

A warm sunny spring day and suddenly a call goes out over emergency radios, "Cyclist down!"
This type of call happens daily in every city and because of high fuel prices an explosion in the number of cyclists mounting up and taking to the roads in urban areas unfortunately means that there will be an increase in accidents involving cars and bicycles.

According to the Canadian Cycling Association website: There are more cyclists now than ever before in Canada and the fastest-growing segments of the cycling community are teens and adults. More than 45 percent of the Canadian population rides bicycles. That includes 90 percent of 14-year-olds and 70 percent of 15-to-17-year-olds. Two-thirds of adults, more than 14 million, ride a bicycle.
In response to citizen requests, Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz will look into the issues regarding licensing and insuring cyclists in Chilliwack, which would make the city the first in BC to enact a one-of-a-kind bylaw of this nature. "The City would charge users of bicycles money, and then hire staff to collect the money and regulate whether they have licenses or not. We would also cover insurance for them should they have an accident of some kind. We would also build in an additional amount with the fee in order to build more bicycle lanes," said Gaetz. Mayor Gaetz could set precedent
Gaetz supports cycling in Chilliwack and is also worried that licensing would throw-off cyclists and fewer people would use bicycles as a result. "We are very conscious of the need to encourage the use of bicycles, and we are building more cycling lanes each year, but this is certainly something to consider. While I can see some initial issues with this, including the liability exposure to the City, the extra costs associated with administering this, and the risk that the cost impact to bicyclists may actually discourage the use of bicycles, I will refer this to staff to explore," said Gaetz.
National Bike To Work Week starts on Monday May 11 and runs to Sunday May 17 and Chuck Glover, a national examiner with the CAN-BIKE program is nervous about the cycling initiative which can be mayhem on the street. "The bike to work program scares me because people get a Cycling in traffic is risky business at best couple of hours of very basic bike training then believe they have enough information to go out and ride on the streets." Glover says that people bite-off more than they can chew without proper training. "They realize they're in way over their head," he says.
Glover supports the licensing and insuring of cyclists because proper cycling safety and cyclist training isn't good enough. You need more. He says that they can't get insurance from ICBC to teach safety programs. "If we could get insurance for safety courses and the courses were available and affordable, them more people would take the courses, which in turn make the cycling public more aware of what they can and can't do and how to be dressed to interact with the motoring public."
CAN-BIKE is a national cycling program dedicated to teaching safe cycling on the roads. CAN-BIKE was started in Toronto to assist bicycle commuters. The program is nationwide and is recognized in BC by ICBC because the course teaches safe cycling practices. Bicycle cops in Yellowknife.
As a national trainer, Glover is responsible for training RCMP and local Police bike volunteers across Metro Vancouver in the Can-Bike I & 2 programs but so far has not been able to offer these courses to the general public.
Part of the problem says Glover is the lack of proper support from the cycling community. "I can't get insurance to conduct CAN-BIKE courses in BC to the general public. It's ironic but Cycling BC doesn't want to look at recreational cycling, in particular the teaching of safe cycling like CAN-BIKE. The reason is that Cycling BC is only concerned with racing, not commuting or safety courses, as only racing brings in money. I've tried to get them to see the needs of the rest of the cycling community, to no avail."
The CAN-BIKE II course is an 18-20 hour course that is for the advanced cyclist. Along with rural riding training, city cyclists will be put in heavy traffic situations training but only when Glover feels the rider is ready. "I like to use Kingsway Ave. in front of Metrotown mall on a Thursday or Saturday afternoon. Once you can ride and deal with this successfully, then you can ride city traffic anywhere in Canada."
At the present Glover is hopeful Traffic congestion in Vancouver that the Vancouver Area Cycling Association (VACC) can bring CAN-BIKE under their insurance umbrella which will then allow him to offer public courses. "If we could get insurance for safety courses and the courses were available and affordable, them more people would take the courses, which in turn make the cycling public more aware of what they can and can't do and how to be dressed to interact with the motoring public," said Glover.
According to some, licensing and insuring cyclists is a quagmire and it hasn't worked in other metropolitan centers in the past for an assortment of reasons.

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