So this is the last Ironman in Penticton. Thirty years of excitement and inconvenience. As a 26-year resident of Penticton, Ironman at first was exciting, then it became just a fact of life and we got through it by trying not to cross Main Street on race day.
Next year, it is supposed to be the Penticton Challenge and a week of celebration. I have no idea what that means. Maybe Peachfest will be turned into “Challenge” or horrors, maybe a week of cycling morons and closed streets.
What happens to cyclists when they straddle a non-powered-bicycle? Ninety-nine per cent of them are old enough to have a driver’s licence. What makes them think they can thumb their noses at road laws? A cyclist stands no chance against any motorized vehicle and yet these cyclists seem to have a death wish because they constantly trust to luck and blow straight through.
This past week, a transit bus was making a right-hand turn onto South Main by the Husky service station. A gaggle of cyclists passed the bus on the corner on the right-hand side. If the driver hadn’t years of experience with the moronic abilities of the majority of cyclists, he could have started to make the turn and crushed the bunch — cyclist pate.
All those signs, “Share the road”, Bull dung! Cyclists don’t share, they just take over. They seem to think a bike changes the road laws to their own selfish wants. They don’t stop at street lights. Their seats are so high they can’t put their feet on the ground. They ride on the sidewalks. They ride on the wrong side of the road and go the wrong way on one-way roads.
Did you see that stupid woman on the sidewalk a couple of weeks ago? She was on the right side of Main Street heading toward Skaha Lake. She was pulling a trailer that looked like a double-wide jogging stroller. She was riding like a fiend late for work. If a child had been in the stroller/trailer, it would have had whiplash or shaken baby syndrome, and if it was an animal, it should have given her a very toothy welcome when released. A man was walking toward her and she started to rapidly check the road to see if she could whip out into traffic from a driveway slope and then back onto the sidewalk after passing the man. She was in such a rush she couldn’t stop to let the walker pass. She was an accident waiting to happen.
Lately, I heard that some government official has said that in order to encourage people to ride bikes more, we should drop the helmet laws. Apparently, it makes people worry about their safety and that riding a bike might be too dangerous. The way people ride bikes they should be wearing a full set of armour.
Share the road? Pishaw! Make licences mandatory for cyclists. If they want to share the road, they should pay their fair share of its upkeep.
Jane Turnell
Penticton