{"id":18163,"date":"2017-08-23T12:25:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18163"},"modified":"2017-08-23T12:25:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T16:25:16","slug":"think-before-you-honk-says-cyclist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/think-before-you-honk-says-cyclist\/","title":{"rendered":"Think before you honk, says cyclist"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to ask for a bit of patience towards cyclists who share our roads.
\nThis past month I\u2019ve had several dangerous events take place on our quiet country roads.
\nI\u2019ve been riding with one or two friends at 6 a.m. when a car or truck will creep up on us, honk at close proximity and then drive by dangerously close to us while addressing us with a one finger salute in some cases.
\nThis is completely unprovoked behaviour. We are in the middle of nowhere, no traffic, the sun just up, an otherwise beautiful morning.
\nTo the driver of these cars\/trucks, you are putting us in mortal danger.
\nYour unexpected honking can cause us to swerve and lose control and then within seconds you are inches away in a massive vehicle. The law suggests a one meter buffer between cars and cyclists. We will be the loser in this situation if it goes badly.
\nWe are business owners, mothers, fathers, grandfathers and folks like yourself just trying to enjoy the morning.
\nI\u2019m trying to put a human face on what seems to be a symbol of some road sharing frustration to you.
\nThere are some challenges sharing the road.
\nThe growth in popularity in cycling has made this more apparent.
\nTown and Regional planners, are you listening?
\nI did get the licence plate number of a truck this week and found that I could report it online to the York Regional Police.
\nThe police tell me that they\u2019ve sent a warning note to the individual.
\nThis avenue is open to all who may encounter this issue while riding.
\nWould I be stating the obvious if I say that cyclists are sometimes the root cause of the animosity? Often cyclists seem to think they are above traffic laws; It\u2019s not justification for the dangerous actions I\u2019ve witnessed but I can see what might have inspired it.
\nLet\u2019s look for the best ways to share roads, act responsibly and in the spirit that will make it easier for everyone to navigate our thoroughfares safely and enjoyably.<\/p>\n

Steve Falk
\nAurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to ask for a bit of patience towards cyclists who share our roads. This past month I\u2019ve had several dangerous events take place on our quiet country roads. I\u2019ve been riding with one or two friends at 6 a.m. when a car or truck will creep up on us, honk at close proximity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4IX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 09:08:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}