A heated argument caught on video is highlighting tension between drivers and cyclists on Saskatoon streets.
The video, filmed by David Palibroda, shows him cycling on Broadway Avenue when a vehicle honks and passes him. Palibroda, who rides with a mounted GoPro camera, then speeds up to the motorist, which prompts the driver to pull over.
“Move over, you f***ing idiot,” the driver yells at Palibroda, as the two exchange words. “You need to pull over.”
Palibroda tells CTV News he was hoping to “educate” the driver on the rules of the road.
“I’m legally biking where I should be,” he tells the driver before attempting to offer the man a cycling guide.
“You want to fight?” the driver eventually asks.
“No, I just want to educate you,” Palibroda replies, before he’s interrupted.
“Then got off the road, you f***ing idiot,” the man yells, while driving off. “Kill yourself.”
The city’s cycling guide shows that cyclists are legally allowed to bike in the centre of any traffic lane, but a section of the city’s bylaws also state cyclists are required to bike as close to the curb as reasonably practical — which seems to be conflicting.
“It puts the person on the bike in a dangerous situation, where it puts them in a door zone,” Palibroda, in an interview with CTV News, said of riding close to the curb. “It even says in the cycling guide, ‘Do not ride between traffic and parked cars.’”
Both he and Saskatoon Cycles co-chair Cathy Watts agree bike laws in Saskatoon are confusing.
“We all need education,” Watts said. “If you look at the SGI handbook, it hardly has anything in it about how to deal with a bike.”
Palibroda said he doesn’t plan to report the incident to police. He said he just wanted to spread awareness on the rules of cycling.
--- based on a report by Saron Fanel
