Making Ontario’s roads a little more bike-friendly has become a key priority for Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne, a cycling enthusiast from her days living in the Netherlands.

Ms. Wynne has launched a review of the province’s cycling policies. She also appeared receptive to a private member’s bill introduced in the legislature on Tuesday that would require drivers to leave a buffer zone of three feet when passing cyclists on city streets, and five feet on highways.

“I obviously believe that we should make whatever changes we need to make sure that cyclists are safe on the road,” Ms. Wynne told reporters.

New Democratic Party transportation critic Cheri DiNovo, who introduced the bill, said similar laws already exist in France, Spain and Germany. In the United States, sixteen states have approved, or are in the process of approving, bicycle-passing laws.

The bill would go a long way toward making roads safer for cyclists, Ms. DiNovo said, urging Ms. Wynne to “rise above partisan differences and … for once, do the right thing.” Ms. DiNovo added that the leading cause of cyclist fatalities is collisions involving drivers passing bikes.

Ms. Wynne acknowledged that Ontario’s cycling laws lag well behind those in European countries, which have a long tradition of cars and bikes sharing the road. She related her own experience commuting by bike in the Netherlands, where she lived for three years and where her first two children were born.

“I would ride my bike with one child in the front and one child on the back,” she said.

Ms. DiNovo said her bill would reduce the number of bicycle-related injuries and deaths. Every day, she said, 80 people in Ontario visit an emergency department because of a cycling injury. And cyclists are between seven and 70 times more likely to be injured than those who drive cars.

That grim statistic hit home last weekend, when four riders in Quebec were run down and killed. One cyclist died after a collision on a rural highway in the Laurentian Mountains on Saturday; three others died on Friday in a ghastly accident south of Montreal.

Ms. DiNovo’s bill comes just days after a plan to establish separated bike lanes along Toronto’s University Avenue was defeated.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he is not sure the province needs a three-foot rule for cyclists, even though he has his own buffer zone with the media: reporters in the Queen’s Park press gallery have been asked to stand at least five feet from him when asking questions.

“Just personally, I’m not sure if it’s a matter of needing more laws, or a greater sense of respect for one another on the road,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-aims-to-increase-cyclist-safety/article1573602/