SUBMITTED BY GILBERT COMEAULT, NOTL.
OPINION

Dear editor: 

I was biking on John Street toward Butler, riding on the right side of the road as a garbage truck on the left stopped to pick up trash.

A car behind the garbage truck moved into my lane to pass the big truck.

Not knowing whether there would be enough space for both the car and my bike, and having been hit once by a car while biking home, incapacitating me for nearly three months, I wasn’t taking a chance.

I went off the pavement onto the shoulder, at which point I fell off my bike and my body hit the ground.

I escaped with scratches on my elbow. My partner, who was riding behind me, helped me up. The driver of the garbage truck asked if I was alright. I said yes.

There was a time when drivers stopped or at least slowed down behind a vehicle that had stopped (or was moving slowly) before pulling into the oncoming lane when it was safe to do so.

More and more I see cars squeezing into the lane of oncoming traffic to get by a vehicle in their lane. Notwithstanding traffic laws, what has happened to civility?

Gilbert Comeault

NOTL