‘Drivers, please, please, protect our families, including runners, cyclists, and seniors. Share the road safely,’ says frustrated letter writer<\/p>\n
OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or via the website<\/a>. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).<\/p>\n Walking a stroller, running, or cycling on rural area roads should not feel like a dangerous test of survival. Yet, in the past year or so, I felt like this is exactly what I\u2019ve taken on.<\/p>\n As a local grandmother and avid runner, in Severn Township, I face narrow roads with deep, poison ivy-filled ditches. I urge drivers to slow down, wait for oncoming traffic to pass, and move completely over when passing any vulnerable road user.<\/p>\n The reality of our rural roads<\/p>\n No safe space: Largely without paved shoulders and with hazardous ditches, pedestrians and cyclists press as far to the edge as possible, yet vehicles still pass us too closely.<\/p>\n The danger: Passing too closely at high speeds \u2014 especially considering heavy gravel trucks are area road users \u2014 puts absolute fear into other road users. An animal jumping from the roadside, a pot hole or a mechanical issue could cause a driver to unintentionally swerve into a pedestrian or cyclist, resulting in a catastrophe.<\/p>\n The rule: Slowing down while hugging the pedestrian or cyclist is not enough; drivers must move completely over or wait safely to pass us.<\/p>\n The Good and the Bad<\/p>\n Courteous drivers: Many local drivers and gravel truck operators have shown wonderful respect by slowing down or even signaling a full lane change to go around us.<\/p>\n Our appreciation: We always offer a big wave and a smile to thank drivers who share the road safely.<\/p>\n The warning: For the drivers who rush past too close, we motion to move over, but it is often too late to prevent the dangerous manoeuvre.<\/p>\n Drivers, please, please, protect our families, including runners, cyclists, and seniors. Share the road safely.<\/p>\n Anne Mcgrath
\nSevern Township<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Drivers, please, please, protect our families, including runners, cyclists, and seniors. Share the road safely,’ says frustrated letter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,298301,82],"class_list":["post-857849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-letter-to-the-editorshare-the-road","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}