Dipping the toe in the waters

As the weather has improved and the cabin fever has started to set in, I have ventured forth on my bike for a couple of short rides in the last two days. Against normal practice, in order to ensure social distancing, I have avoided two-way bike paths like the, ahem, plague.

The first ride was very close to home and I tried to use one way streets as much as possible. This way a good idea, in theory, but, in practice, it did not entirely prevent the odd encounter with cyclists (and even one automobile!) going the wrong way on a one way street.

Today, I went a bit further afield in order to do a mercy delivery of essential medical needs (vino rosso) to a couple of elderly ladies at a residence downtown.

Again, I avoided the deMaisonneuve bike path, opting instead for Rene Levesque and Sherbrooke, which were not bad choices given the limited amount of motorized traffic. On the negative side, though, the reduced traffic gave the vehicles that were on the road ample space to speed excessively.

I also noted that there were a fair number of pedestrians downtown and it does make one wonder how this social distancing is going to work as the government starts easing off the restrictions? I think cyclists will have an easier time of keeping a suitable distance compared to pedestrians. Hopefully, the announced safety corridors by the city will expand to favour cyclists and pedestrians as people stay away from crowded public transit.

Ron Gallant aka G.T. Bishop