How does a cyclist turn left on a one way street?

1 minute read

I just read a Victoria police blog article about a cyclist who was sent to the hospital after a driver opened their vehicle door fast enough for the cyclist to crash into it. This was on Fort street, one of the main streets downtown Victoria. What does not appear anywhere in the press release is that this road is is a one-way only, Eastbound.

The cyclist was later issued a ticket, for failing to cycle on the right hand side of the roadway - a requirement under section 183 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Having read the article, it's not clear to me how a cyclist would ever turn left off of Fort street to head North once the reader realizes it's a one way street? This is a great example of not being able to prove spin vs an innocent mistake on behalf of the Victoria police blog author. As the article does not clearly mention this, if someone was bicycling on the left side of a two-way street, this is demonstrably dangerous and illegal (heading into oncoming traffic). However in the case of a one way street, this is not the case. I bicycle up Fort street myself quite often, and have to turn left to go home. I prefer to go on the left side for longer than not, in order to not sharply cut off several lanes of Eastbound traffic.

Surely to be the water cooler conversation today in the beautiful 250 area code!

 

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