Cyclists, motorways and pseudomotorways

jonesjjff@hotmail.com

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
.....
>
> Motorways are restricted roads closed to a variety of slower-
> moving traffic including horses, low-power motorcycles and
> learners. They are generally designed and built as restricted
> roads. This is done almost entirely for the benefit of car
> drivers.

In Canada, that would certainly be true. Freeways and toll roads are
built for motorized traffic only, just as railroads are restricted to a
particular class of vehicle. (We also have busways for buses only.)
When a public highway is converted to a freeway, adequate alternative
routes have to exist or be provided, e.g. the adding of a parallel
service road.
One of the reasons we are able to successfully fight the occasional
municipal "bike ban" is because "public highways" are exactly that -
highways for public use, and the right to travel on them goes back at
least to Roman times and I'd imagine is well-established in English
common law. Many of our legal precedents are inherited from the latter.


There's an interesting related article on a US bike ban at:
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/7346.0.html

JFJ, Canada