Re: Cycling in Fredericton
Upon reading about the trial of an individual accused of leaving the scene of an accident involving a cyclist, I felt compelled to share with your readers my own recent cycling experience in Fredericton.
On Friday evening, Oct. 21, I was on my mountain bike waiting to cross Smythe Street at Saunders Street, going east.
While waiting for a break in traffic, several cars in the left turning lane to Saunders Street from Smythe Street had stopped to let me cross.
Eventually the outside lane on Smythe Street going north had a break in traffic and a motorist going west on Smythe Street had stopped, thus allowing me to cross.
Unfortunately by this time a motorist held up by the illegal yielding of the other motorists hurled a profanity in my direction - for the most part blaming me for holding up traffic.
I didn't see who the motorist was yelling at me as I crossed Smythe Street, but I soon found out who it was. As I continued east on the next section of Saunders Street, a large white GMC pick-up truck came roaring up behind me. The guy driving this truck went ahead of me and turned right on Northumberland Street.
By time I got to the next intersection of Saunders and Westmorland Streets the large white GMC pick-up appeared again. This time he turned left and came as close to me as possible and proceeded to spit on me.
Essentially he drove all the way around the block to get a better shot at me.
If anything can be learned from this incident, it's that motorists shouldn't yield for cyclists unnecessarily - let us follow the traffic rules just as you should.
One more fact: this all happened within a few hundred metres of the spot where the lady in the wheelchair was killed crossing the street just a few weeks ago.
Rob Scullion
Fredericton
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