Safety was one of the hot topics Saturday at the annual Love Your Bike Festival in Guelph.
Safety and cycling infrastructure were things cyclists said the city, cyclists and motorists can improve on.
“I do a lot of cycling around the city,” said Cheryle Cook, cyclist at the event. “I think we have to work together with the traffic because some people can get very dangerous.”
Cook said working on safety for both cyclists and motorists will help prevent accidents. “I’d like to see that everyone knows the road rules.”
“There are parts in the city where you have to ride on the sidewalk because you cannot ride on the road, it’s too dangerous,” she said. Cook mentioned streets like Speedvale and Woodlawn are particularly risky.
“To me, I think the biggest issue is getting the existing infrastructure connected so you can go from point a to point b in the city,” said Rick McRonald, St. Andrew’s Church mission and outreach committee member.
Safety is a concern for McRonald when cycling in certain areas of the city. “I have to admit I ride on the sidewalk sometimes. When I take a trail along the river to Speedvale Avenue I have to cross to go into Riverside Park. I ride my bike on the sidewalk if there’s no one walking on the sidewalk, until I can cross at the light because it’s too dangerous to ride on Speedvale Avenue.”
He said the road is too narrow and the traffic is too fast, unsafe conditions for cyclists.
“I see bike riders who take terrible risks, who ignore stop signs, stop lights. Who ride across on pedestrian crosswalks that they’re not supposed to ride on. People need to take responsibility for their own behaviour because they need to take more responsibility for their safety too,” said McRonald.
The city of Guelph has cycling safety rules on their website for cyclists to be aware.
Minor repairs were offered at the event for cyclists to tune up their bikes.
There was also a wrench off, where community members, Mayor Cam Guthrie and MP Lloyd Longfield competed to see who could put together a bike tire the quickest. Guthrie came in first.
The event had two rides cyclists good sign up for, one to Guelph Lake and the other, a family-friendly, easier ride to Exhibition Park.