The Editor:
Re: Letter: Pay attention, Tri-City skateboarders, bikers and scooter-riders! (June 28, 2022)
First, I do not deny that conflicts happen between rollers (e.g., people who use skateboards, scooters, etc.) and other people on sidewalks.
It is important that sidewalk users, like the seniors in the letter, are safe and feel safe. However, judging and patrolling can only go so far; they do not always prevent people driving cars from misbehaving.
People's transportation behaviour is a response to the infrastructure available to them.
Instead of attributing these conflicts to rollers being irresponsible or inconsiderate, I invite readers to ponder why rollers resort to sidewalks in the first place.
A major factor is that streets and roads in the Tri-Cities are generally unsafe because there are too many cars — and cars go too fast. If we want to get most rollers out of sidewalks, municipalities here need to provide more separate infrastructure, such as bike lanes, for them to move safely.
Another way is to slow down cars on streets using traffic calming.
That scooter riders and skateboarders are terrorizing seniors on sidewalks is a symptom of the lack of infrastructure for car-free transportation here.
- Heikal Badrulhisham, Port Moody
