How is it May already?
I mean, OK, it is starting to look a lot more like spring the last few days (I put my windshield scraper in my trunk last week, hoping I wouldn’t regret doing that), and I’ve gone for a couple of afternoon walks without having to wear a coat, so that’s all good.
It’s just that if this is May, that means next month is June and BOOM! Just like that we’re halfway through the year.
There are some other signs of spring around Prince George too. Like the cyclist I saw eastbound on Fifth Avenue one early morning on the weekend. Had on a helmet and a very bright lamp on the front of his vehicle, as they breezed right through the red light at the corner of Ahbau without ever slowing down. I mean, if there had been a vehicle coming, that cyclist was probably going to be in a lot of of trouble, especially since all the witnesses at the light on Fifth Avenue would have to tell the police was, “I was stopped at the red light. I didn’t actually see the impact, but it’s pretty clear if I had a red light, so did the cyclist.”
I also had the chance to put one of my personal road rules into effect last week. I came up to a crosswalk with a young person with a scooter waiting at the side of the road. They were standing beside the scooter, so I stopped, and they walked the scooter across the road.
A couple of days later, different crosswalk and (I assume) a different youngster with a scooter. This time, they were standing with one of their feet on the scooter, which by my figuring means they aren’t a pedestrian and I don’t have to stop for them.
At that point, a scooter to me becomes the same as a bicycle. A number of cyclists, scooter riders and people in powered chairs all seem to have the same attitude to the rules of the road: If it works in my favour, I will obey the law and insist that others do so as well. But if I can get where I’m going faster by breaking the rules, I will (but will still insist that motorists follow them).
The vast majority of the streets in Prince George have been swept and cleaned up, so there is plenty of room along the side of the road (where cyclists are legally required to be) for cyclists to ride without interfering with other traffic. So why do some still insist on riding side-by-side, sometimes spilling halfway across one of the traffic lanes?
I think if everyone decided that, hey, I’m going to try actually following the rules, no matter what kind of transport they have, it will make the roads safer for everyone.