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Cyclists near-miss with pregnant woman prompts calls for bike licensing

A collision between a cyclist and a pregnant woman has triggered a call for a new licensing system for all Vancouver bikes.

Non-Partisan Association Opposition city councilor Melissa De Genova put forward a motion to city council earlier this week asking staff to look into the viability of licensing cyclists.

De Genova wants the city to start a licensing program where bikes are registered. A licensing system may help authorities keep track of incidents like the one earlier this month between a cyclist and a pedestrian.

Mandy Pappas posted on her Facebook page a photograph of the cyclist she said nearly ran her over after knocking her down. She urged anyone who recognized the cyclist to report him.

Screengrab of Facebook page.
Screengrab of Facebook page.

“I am 5 months pregnant and I was just assaulted by this cyclist as I was on my way to vote. He ran a stop sign full speed and I yelled to him that there was a stop sign - as he almost ran me over. He stopped, turned his bike around and came directly for me, hit and knocked me over,” she wrote.

Pappas says neither she nor her baby was harmed. She said she tried to hold on to the cyclist’s backpack to keep him at the scene but couldn’t force him to stay. A witness took the photo of the cyclist.

De Genova, the city councilor, told the Vancouver Province that licensing each bike could make it easier to identify cyclists after encounters. She noted that the incident along the bike route in Kitsilano highlights how it can be tough to identify a rider, especially at night.

She does not yet know how much it would cost for a licence. “I would hope it would be a nominal fee,” she told The Province.

The cyclist, who did not give his name and said he didn’t know the cycling rules in Canada because he is from overseas, later contacted some media outlets and gave a statement saying he was aware of the woman crossing the street on foot in front of him.

He wrote that he rode by the woman on his bike at a “safe distance” adding he was not aware of the fact that the pedestrian had the right of way.

European traffic laws differ in that point. After I was passing she yelled “There is a stop sign! Asshole!” at me. I was not aware of any wrongdoing so I turned around to talk to her. I was accelerating quickly and my intention was to come to a sudden stop right next to her to talk to her about her comment. The moment I came close to her she turned towards me and grabbed my handlebars. We both fell down to the ground. I didn’t intend that and was also shocked.”

The cyclist said the collision happened at relatively low speed since he was intending to stop next to her and he left because the pedestrian called her husband and he did not want to get into a fight.

“I realize now that it could have seem to her that I was trying to intentionally hit her. My flashing light might have blinded her and she might therefore have thought that I was trying to hit her. This was not my intention. I deeply regret the accident.”

Not the first such occurence

Every time there is news coverage of an incident between pedestrians and cyclists, it triggers a call for regulations, according to Arno Schortinghuis with the B.C. Cyclist Coalition.   

Schortinghuis said there are two sides to the incident and he believes it’s been overblown and the response from Councillor De Genova is also an overreaction.

The real danger on roads is from motor vehicles, according to him.

“The risk of being injured by a person riding a bike may be the same as someone being hit by a mobility scooter. Or a skateboard,” said Schortinghuis, the president of the advocacy group for transportation and recreational cyclists.

“What you hear are cyclists are a bunch of scofflaws and need to be controlled because they’re dangerous and it’s just not true,” he told Yahoo Canada.

“Around the world there are hardly any jurisdictions for cyclists,” he said. “It’s a waste of resources.”

In a report from Bike Calgary , the issue of licensing was dismissed as punitive and unlikely to be enforceable. Proponents of regulations argue that motorists are required to license and register their vehicles and cyclists should also meet the same requirements.

Toronto has tried three times since 1984 to license bicycles and Calgary tried to start an initiative in 2003 but the plan has not gone forward, according to Bike Calgary. Regina has a bike licensing bylaw on the books but in practice it is not enforced. In the United States, Minnesota is the only state to have a bicycle registry but it is a voluntary system and in Switzerland, a license system that began in 2010, was phased out two years later.
Schortinghuis said Vancouver had a bike licensing system in the 1930s but it was taken off the books four decades later because police were spending too much time catching and ticketing people with their unlicensed bicycles.

He said instead of licensing bikes, officials should look at teaching cycling education to school children and make it a core curriculum. Insurance companies and driving schools should also do their part and include cycling awareness into driving tests.