Laurier segregated bike lane. Credit: OttawaAC/Wikimedia Commons
In Ottawa, cycling advocates have been energized by the death of 23-year-old Nusrat Jahan, who was killed September 1 in a collision on a Laurier Ave bike lane. Jahan, the daughter of a diplomat working at the Bangladesh High Commission, was ‘right-hooked’ by a Tomlinson Environmental Services truck and pronounced dead at the scene. The collision was one of three serious cycling accidents which occurred in Ottawa in a span of five days.
Just hours Jahan’s death, more than a hundred demonstrators gathered outside Ottawa City Hall to voice their anger and demand measures to improve the safety of the city’s cyclists. Councillors Catherine McKenney, representing Somerset Ward, and Jeff Leiper, representing Kitchissipi Ward, joined the demonstration.
“I know at least a dozen people who could have been on the Laurier bike lane at that time this morning, as many residents do,” said McKenney. “It was disbelief and sadness and frustration and anger all together.”
“A woman was killed … on what is supposed to be one of our safe pieces of infrastructure,” added Coun. Leiper. “I don’t want my son riding on the streets of my ward because, frankly, they’re just not safe. Enough is enough.”
In a September 3 article from CBC Ottawa, several locals echoed the concerns of their councillors. Sebastian Winkler said he wouldn’t be pulling his bicycle out “for fear or being hit by a car,” while Brianna St. Cyr said she “would not cycle in downtown Ottawa” because “it’s just not safe.”
Their fear is understandable: in the days leading up to Jahan’s death, two other cyclists suffered head injuries in two separate accidents. However, advocates are hoping the well-publicized cycling accidents won’t stifle the sport’s growth in the nation’s capital.
“One of the big reasons that I choose to live here in Ottawa is because it really is a leader in Ontario, in terms of raised cycle tracks, making connections, off-road paths for cyclists,” Share the Road executive director Jamie Stuckless told the CBC. “It could be better and there’s a lot more we could do, but Ottawa truly is a leader.”
Keeping cyclists on the city’s streets is important to the long-term safety of Ottawa’s cycling community. In 2011, a TRANS committee survey found that between 2005 and 2011, bicycle journeys in Ottawa-Gatineau rose 40 per cent; meanwhile, cycling accidents fell from 231 in 2006 to 228 in 2014. This data falls in line with 2003 research by Peter Jacobsen, a public health researcher, who found that bicycle collision rates fell with increased bicycle use.
“There’s a safety in numbers effect,” said Vélo Québec’s Bartek Komorowski to the CBC. “The more cyclists there are, the less likely a cyclist is to be involved in an accident.”
Still, with school-aged teens and children heading returning to class this week, parents are sure to be extra-cautious around bicycle use. In Toronto, police have initiated a week-long blitz focused on enforcing road safety rules in school zones.
“Specifically in school areas people might have gotten a little more relaxed with the rules,” Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook told CBC Toronto, “so we are reminding road users, drivers, cyclists, pedestrians just to be aware.”
In urbanized regions across Canada, cycling is becoming an increasingly popular means of transportation, recreation, and exercise. While most careful cyclists are able to avoid serious injury season after season, not all cycling accidents are avoidable. If you have been seriously hurt in a cycling collision, contact Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today for a free, no-obligation consultation. Our team has more than 40 years of experience helping injured Ontarians access the compensation they need to facilitate their recovery.
Greg Neinstein
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