Editor:
In response to the three letters to the editor in the June 20 edition of the Outlook in response to my “Bow Valley Parkway should be open for all people, not just cyclists” letter in the June 13 edition regarding closing the 17-kilometre section permanently to all but cyclists.
I would first like to make it known that I am most certainly not against cycling or cyclists and their enjoyment of the outdoors. What I do oppose is larceny and the abuse of democracy itself and this is discrimination against non-cyclists.
First and foremost, commandeering the Bow Valley Parkway for the exclusive use of cyclists amounts to stealing. Public property that belongs to all people, not merely cyclists, and as such is not theirs to keep to themselves. As such, yes, cyclists are indeed demanding special preferential treatment not bestowed on any other user group.
I do find this appalling because it is not theirs to take for themselves. The road is not exclusively theirs. There seems to be a new culture of entitlement that the world owes cyclists.
What cyclists are proposing is undemocratic because one user group wants to dictate to all others how the road should be used. Decisions should never be made on the desires of one group. One group does not make the majority. Parks Canada must make decisions based on all stakeholders not merely those of cyclists. We simply cannot favour one group at the exclusion of others. So much for equal rights when one group is more equal than the rest.
No one is saying for a second that cyclists are not welcome, but merely that the road must be shared by all. As is, there is plenty of space along the shoulder to accommodate both bikes and vehicles if cyclists obey the law and ride single file the way they are required to. And, does not cycling make bears more habituated to being comfortable around humans, something which Parks Canada is trying to discourage?
To be honest, rather than give over the parkway exclusively to cyclists, I would rather see Parks Canada tear up the road and return it to nature. When one is greedy, one gets nothing.
Don’t let this gem be stolen for private selfishness.
Mark A. Bowes,
Banff
