Let's expand cycling in Vancouver area and make it safer

The Editor,

Re. "Are bike lanes a scourge on city streets or a useful investment?" (Face to Face, The Tri-City News, May 25).

Enough complaining about bike lanes and cyclists. There is such a hate on from automobile drivers for cyclists.

Yes, there are some bad cyclists but there are many worse cars out there - and how often has a cyclist killed a driver? So stop with that argument.

I have a car and drive on the weekends. I pay my taxes, I pay my share, so stop with that argument.

The millions of dollars spent on bike lanes are a pittance compared to what is spent on roads and speed bumps trying to control drivers and roundabouts trying to control drivers and all those lights trying to stop drivers from crashing into one another. We have so much infrastructure to protect drivers and when it comes to protecting vulnerable cyclists who aren't surrounded by tons of steel, there is an uproar.

Cyclists wouldn't need bikes lanes if drivers were more courteous and gave cyclists some room and shared the road. I drove over the Golden Ears Bridge on the weekend - an $808-million bridge that I had to pay about $8 to cross twice - and there were no cars on it, no traffic. I have never seen any on that bridge and yet, on a rainy winter day when few cyclists use the bike lanes, there is an uproar that they are not being used. The designs for the Golden Ears Bridge cost more than all the bike lanes combined.

I commute from Coquitlam to downtown 30 km each way on my bike year round and in all weather.

We should encourage more cycling, make it safer and there will be fewer cars on the road, making it better for everyone to get around. Most cyclists I meet follow the rules and we just want to get to work and back and be healthier.

S. Wright, Coquitlam