8-year-old Niobe writes to the Mayor & Council about Bike Safety

Niobe in City Hall after delivering her letter to Council.

A friend's daughter decided to spend her free time during Bike to School Week carefully composing a letter to the Vancouver City Council detailing her concerns about biking to school in Vancouver. She eloquently describes her own experiences & makes a very good suggestion for a policy change to make cycling on the city's neighbourhood bikeways safer.

Here's the text of her letter:

Dear Vancouver Mayor and Councillors, 

My name is Niobe and I am eight years old. I am a very good bike rider but riding in Vancouver is really scary. 

I only ride to school on marked bike roads (10th and Heather) but there are so many cars and delivery trucks and construction trucks and taxis on these roads. 

When I ride in front of my mom, cars can't see me, so when they choose to pass, they don't leave enough time or space and end up coming way too close and go way too fast.
When I ride behind my mom, cars still try to pass us but often end up not having enough time and pull over between me and my mom! That's super scary.  

Once, after going up a hill, a car came by and made a really loud noise that surprised me and my bike slipped and I fell on the road. No car stopped to see if I was okay, they kept driving past us while my mom got me and my bike off the street.  

The best part of my ride is past the hospital where I get to ride on a raised bike road with no cars. My mom says you can't put these bike roads everywhere because it would be too expensive.  

So I thought it would be cheaper to make a rule that cars can't pass bike riders on bike roads. That would make my ride to school a lot safer and safer for my friends too. Can you please make this a rule?  

Sincerely,  

Niobe. 

I think a no passing law on bikeways would be a great addition to Vancouver's bylaws. Well put, Niobe.

If you'd like to see this change come into effect, or have any other ideas of your own to make biking safer in Vancouver, please contact the City of Vancouver via #311, writing a letter to the Mayor & Council as Niobe did, or using the VanConnect App.

*her name is pronounced [Nigh-oh-bee] in case you were wondering.

Follow Spokesmama here too: