She brought the Critical Mass movement back to Nanaimo as a way for other cyclists to make some new friends and bring visibility to how big the cycling community is in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually see new bike lanes going in and infrastructure coming in all the time. It’s coming, it’s coming slowly, and that’s totally normal,\u201d Douchant said. \u201cMy hope is to maybe train the motorists how to behave around cyclists when there isn’t infrastructure in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erica Mackinnon has been regularly riding her bike for almost five years now. When she moved to Nanaimo less than two years ago, she found cycling to be a bit nerve-racking with the lack of protected bike lanes in some areas and the speed of motorists.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiding on Bowen [Road] was a little scary. There definitely needs to be more protected bike lanes and better biking infrastructure,\u201d Mackinnon said. \u201cThere are clear signs that show sharing the road with cars and bikes, but there’s no bike path at all, and there the cars get so close to you. It’s really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said there need to be more protected bike lanes in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had cars going so close to me, even though there are signs that clearly said it’s a shared road for bikes and cars,\u201d Mackinnon said.<\/p>\n