"DOMINATE!" OUR POLICE INSTRUCTOR TELLS US.
EASY FOR HIM TO SAY, HE'S GOT AGUN
 

By Sue-Ann Levy
Toronto Sun, April 16, 1999

It's 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and my heart is palpitating as I steer my shinynew hybrid bicycle down the busy bike lanes on St. George Street. My clammy,white-knuckled hands grip the gearshift tightly; my teeth are clenched.

The cold sweat has absolutely nothing to do with being out of shape,or even the gusty winds. It's merely the idea of cycling to work in thedowntown megacity traffic madness.

"Watch out ... pay attention, idiot!" I shout to a cube van driver preparingto veer into my path on John Street.

I shakily arrive at Metro Hall as tightly wound as the metal coil Iuse to lock up my bike - not really sure why a recreational cyclist likeme agreed to be a media guinea pig in this spring's first city- run Can-Bikecourse.

(Some $222,000 in city money goes into cycling, incidentally, mainlyto subsidize a series of Can-Bike courses and promote a road and trailsafety ambassador program.)

"This whole course is about getting back and forth on your bike safely,"training officer Robert Olmstead tells the seven participants (a mix ofmedia types, couriers and two police officers newly assigned to the downtownbike patrol.) Olmstead has been with 52 Division's Police Vehicle Operationsfor 11 years and has trained more than 700 officers in this "defensivecycling" course.

"Huh," I mutter to the group with a cynical snort. "You can't convinceme it's safe to ride on downtown streets."

Tim Hamil, a pony-tailed bike courier with Critical Path, says he canuse some safety tips to keep him "out of those situations" like the onethat left him with two broken arms two years ago.

"I know I bend the rules a little bit," adds James Stewart, a courierwith Nomad Express.

Yeah, that's for sure. These are the guys I love to hate when I'm behindthe wheel of my compact car. But at least on this day I' ll be able tosee the world from their vantage point.

Olmstead's partner, Const. Hugh Smith, quickly tells us that under theHighway Traffic Act we have all the "rights of a motor vehicle." That meanswe don't need to hug the curb (given all the obstacles like litter andsewers, he doesn't recommend it) and it's better to be two-thirds out inthe right-hand lane.

"That makes us manoeuvrable, very visible and predictable," he says.

'BLOCK POSITION'

In fact, Smith advises us to aggressively "dominate" the mostly narrowdowntown lanes "in a block position" so motorists can't even think of passingus and we can avoid hazards like doors opening from parked cars.

"If someone honks their horn, that's their problem ... dominate! " heurges us, emphasizing we still have to make the proper shoulder checksand diligently signal all turns.

As if to bolster his pitch, he says 90% of cycling accidents are dueto sideswipes from car doors, while only 10% happen to be rear- enders.

Yikes! If I'm to follow Smith's advice, that means no more riding onthe sidewalk or in a pedestrian crosswalk, which can actually get me upto $235 in fines. I also learn that bikes without a bell can be fined andthat a bell is really useful to warn vehicles from "pulling out" and smokingme.

As for the 66 km of downtown bike lanes that drive me crazy when I'min my 2,000-pound car, Smith feels they're there for the "untrained rider."The problem is, he says, most motorists aren't properly trained to drivearound them.

Our pep talk over and my helmet properly positioned right over my forehead,Olmstead and Smith lead us on a two-hour tour of the downtown streets -on the cusp of rush hour - to let us practice what they've preached.

BUSY STREETS

We tackle roads that would make my mother "plotz" (Yiddish for freakout) - Yonge and Church Streets, the heavily trafficked and streetcar-trackedSpadina Crescent, to name a few. I'm feeling pretty confident riding withtwo cops outfitted in bullet-proof vests and carrying Glock semi-automatics.

"The more you ride in this downtown urban congestion the more comfortableyou get," says Olmstead, who feels well-educated cyclists in turn educatemotorists. "At first it seems overwhelming."

That's putting it mildly! My head spins faster than my bike wheels asI'm forced to fend off streetcar tracks, cube vans with their sharp- edgedback doors down, impatient sport utility drivers, crazy cabbies and thosedarn jaywalkers.

At Queen's Park Circle, a particularly obnoxious cabby tails me as I"dominate" the lane onto Wellesley Street, his engine revving repeatedly.P.C. Brian Stacey is too far away to help me, so I give the cabby the fingerinstead.

Another cab driver gives a repeat performance as my tired but more confidentbody decides to tackle the dedicated bike lanes up Bay Street enroute home.The cabby weaves around me twice, honking and cutting me off.

But this time I take it all in stride, recalling the words of low-keycourier Stewart: "You just need to let it go ... road rage doesn't matterwhether you're in a car or on a bike."

Will I ride to work on a regular basis now? Well, that's debatable.But at least I've seen rush hour from both sides of the street.

ILLUSTRATION: photo by Norm Betts\UNEASY RIDER ... Heart palpitatingand in a cold sweat, columnist Levy getsready to bike Toronto's mean streetsas part of the city's Can-Bike program.So can she bike? Read on.