a hit-and-run on July 7<\/a>, which proved fatal for one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n“What began as a morning dedicated to training for a cycling tour to raise awareness and support for children battling cancer and their families has resulted in a heartbreaking tragedy,” said\u00a0Gary Begg, the provincial Minister of Public Safety and\u00a0Solicitor General.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For cycling advocate and Kelowna Cycling Coalition treasurer and past president Landon Bradshaw, he hopes that these latest tragedies don’t permanently taint people’s perceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We, like anybody else, have become numb,” said Bradshaw. “Every time we go out, and we ride our bikes in pretty much any setting, there’s a chance it could be one of us. That mindset keeps people from getting away from their cars. In the Okanagan Valley and on these rural roads, cycling’s is not normalized, so people aren’t trained to see them, they’re going too fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s a Catch-22; if\u00a0we had more people cycling, then people around here would be used to seeing people\u00a0and knowing what to do when they see a person a bike, but you can’t get those people cycling until the people in the cars see them.”<\/p>\n
The Granfondo has had its share of close calls over the years;\u00a0in 2019, a pile-up of cyclists nearly led to a crash with drivers in a scene caught on dashcam. In that case, no one was seriously injured, but other races events outside of the community haven’t always been so lucky and that hasn’t helped ground local drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s like anything that that happens outside of our our valley, it’s well, ‘That’s other people’, you don’t have to really think about it,” said Bradshaw. “Well it’s here. It’s always been here, but we’ve been lucky, and we can’t rely on luck.”<\/p>\n
Bradshaw\u00a0pointed to the implementation of Vision Zero policies as one of the ways to improve the safety of roadways for drivers and cyclists, alongside supporting further safe biking infrastructure to get cyclists and drivers used to being next to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We can make changes to the way we design roads so that when people make mistakes\u00a0\u2014 not ‘if people make mistakes’, because we know that it is a ‘when’\u00a0
\n\u2014 that people don’t die,” said Bradshaw.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the wake of the recent tragedy, the impact has already rippled out and affected another upcoming event, with additional safety measures for the Peach Classic Penticton Triathlon on July 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organizers have secured additional signage for the race, as well as additional motorcycle escorts during the cycling and running sections of the event, on top of the full medical team and other measures already in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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