John Santana, proprietor of Santana Ortho Lab, was among a group of cyclists who came to last night's meeting of Sault Ste. Marie City Council.
And he brought along a cracked green bike helmet to help make his point that widening Trunk Road to allow more room for bicycling would be very dangerous.
"Back in 1995, the preferred choice for making a road safe for cyclists was to widen the road," Santana said. "When you are dealing with roads that are high-speed, multi-lane roads, it doesn't work."
"The safest way is to get the cyclists away from the traffic," Santana said.
Santana then produced his cracked bicycle helmet and said, "I have proof, right here."
"This is the helmet that saved me from serious head injury when I was in an accident on my bike up on Great Northern Road about two years ago," he said.
"The problem with multi-lane roads at high speeds is that a blind spot is created by a car in the left lane when a cyclist is using the right lane to travel in," he said. "At 55 kilometres per hour she [the driver] turned into my path and I collided with the side of her car."
Santana told councillors about other accidents that have happened under similar circumstances in the same area.
He warned that the same set of conditions that precipitated his and other accidents would be set up by the proposed changes to Trunk Road.
Santana and the other cyclists at the meeting suggested a separate bike trail to the north of Trunk Road would be a safer alternative to widening the road.
In his report to Council, Don Elliot, City Director of Engineering, said that the number of accidents in that block warranted the addition of a turn lane.
In October, 2005, Council approved a plan to resurface Trunk Road from Boundary Road to Black Road pending Ministry of Transportation funding for the project as a connecting link.
"The possible addition of a lane triggers a Schedule B environmental assessment, hence the public open house in February," Elliot told Council in his report.
Non-motorized transportation activist Andre Riopel learned of the proposed plan and, along with some fellow cyclists, brought concerns to Elliot at that and subsequent meetings
Riopel, Santana and Dr. Bob Maloney all addressed their concerns about widening Trunk Road to Council last night.
They referred to the City's Cycling Master Plan as drafted and accepted by Council in 1995.
"The safety of the cyclists would be included in the plan," said Santana.
City Council agreed that the Cycling Master Plan of 1995 is out of date and asked the cyclists to provide more information for City planners.