Wrong Mr. Perischilli (by Wayne Scott)

Wayne's response to a dumb article in the The Star

(Part A) #1 - The horrific events of last week should not be centered around what you call the "Bryant incident" but rather "the tragic death of Darcy Allan Sheppard". #2 - Maybe the reason your priorities are so skewed is that all the people within your sphere of contact react to this horrific event by "talking about their own road experiences and the difficulties they've had in dealing with the increasing aggressiveness of some cyclists". Perhaps you need more contact with the real world, not just the contrived one viewed by your peers mainly through a windshield. #3 - "The car pollutes and the car is big." These are relative facts, not as you suggest, perceptions. #4 - Cyclists are correct in thinking they own the roads, because they do. Just as much as motorists. In fact, when our streets were first built, there were no cars. And when Toronto's streets were first paved, it was to aid cyclists, as there were still no cars.

Part B #5 - "They (bikes) slow down the traffic because it's hard to pass them on a narrow street and if you dare to swerve to avoid a pothole or a cat..." Cyclists are not only entitled to "take the lane" on narrow streets, they are even encouraged to do so by CAN-BIKE, the nation's and Toronto's official safe-riding instruction program for cyclists. That they might move slower than an automobile may just be a fact of life that you should get used to. There is no minimum speed limit, eh? And motorists should not be "swerving" for any reason. If a driver wants to avoid undercarriage "pothole" damage and/or avoid killing cats, SLOW DOWN so that you are better able to control your vehicle when confronted by such unexpected, yet still commonplace situations. Much of our "road-rage" problem stems from pompous, ill-informed citizens believing that they are in the right, when they really have no idea what they are talking about. But thanks, Angelo, for helping to illustrate this phenomenon so publicly.Submitted by scunny at 2:30 PM Sunday, September 06 2009