She was middle-aged — old enough to know better, old enough to be more cautious — and she was cycling up our one-way street against the traffic, close to a row of parked cars, in the dark. Driving home, I saw her, slowed down, and yelled furiously out my window: “Why are you doing this? It is dangerous and wrong.” Or words to that effect. It was an unpleasant encounter on a gorgeous summer evening. We’ve been down this road before.

I am a motorist, fearful and angry, and I’ve come to the end of silently tolerating cyclists who break the law — placing themselves and others in danger.

Karen Stintz — TTC Chair and possible mayoral candidate — tweeted last week that she got a $110 ticket for a rolling stop, but she’s “fighting it” because even though she admits doing rolling stops, the stop sign cited on the ticket didn’t exist. She’ll get off on a technicality. Know what you should do Karen? Set an example, pay up, and quit rolling through stops. It’s against the law.

Even eco guru David Suzuki has cleared his politically correct throat and written in The Georgia Straight that “a lot of the criticism” of cyclists is “valid” and they need to ride smarter and safer. “Too many blast through stop signs, don’t give pedestrians the right-of-way, refuse to signal turns, ride against traffic, don’t make themselves visible enough and use sidewalks.” With Suzuki on board, cycling entitlement may soon be as egregious as throwing litter out your car window.

We are in the wild west of road sharing in this, the age of “the rules are not for me,” the age of instant gratification. No one — pedestrians, motorists or cyclists — obeys all road laws. Everybody, middle finger at the ready, is mighty entitled.

Cars don’t stop when streetcars do. In my neighbourhood, strollers, blissfully licking their frozen yogourts, constantly cross against one red light on a one-way street because they can see cars coming blocks away. You almost feel goofy waiting for green while others forge ahead. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he bloody well felt like it.

We have a mayor who was caught reading while driving. Play us that video. We have hard working advocates for cycling respect and safety frustratedly calling for more education. AS Eleanor McMahon, CEO and founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, said in an email: “We haven’t invested in cycling education so it’s somewhat irrational and frustrating to expect that cyclists are going to know the rules of the road by default.”

McMahon is a formidable community leader who put her heart and soul into making roads safer for cyclists after her husband was killed while riding. Because I admire her, I call her up to call her out: Eleanor, I say, how much education do you need to understand you can’t cycle against traffic on a one-way street?

“I’m not going to deny the bad behaviour choices out there,” says McMahon. But she counters that most cyclists obey the law, and most drivers are “very considerate,” scared to death they are going to injure a cyclist. So when they encounter one who is breaking the law, the fear “turns quickly to anger: holy crap I thought I was going to hit you.” The growing prejudice against cyclists is “human, but it’s not fair.”

We are moving away from being car-centric. According to The Economist, car ownership is down by 40 per cent. Share The Road’s polls show that 600,000 Ontarians ride a bike daily, 182,000 of them in Toronto alone.

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Many 20-somethings don’t even have their drivers’ licences — they didn’t bother, found it too expensive, decided driving doesn’t fit with their values, have no interest in commuting to work for hours, use transit, cycle. Or, all of the above.

According to the New York Times, even in America, “one of the world’s prime car cultures” driving among millennials is down by 23 per cent. “The millennials don’t value cars and car ownership,” was the conclusion. They’d rather have cool tech devices and find other ways to get to work.

McMahon agrees. “This generational choice is starting to frame how we build our cities and how we live.”

But how do we get everyone to obey the rules of the road? Unless you never leave the house, you’re implicated. Yes to education, but not multimillion-dollar programs. Parents, teach your children to cycle safely and do it yourselves. Police, keep pulling over the transgressors, on foot, in cars, on bikes.

And one cycling law breaker at a time, I will keep on telling them how dangerous it is. Or maybe I will only do that with middle-aged women. Survival after all, is my ultimate goal.

Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson

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