Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Smoking, bike lanes need clarity

As a phrase, social licence popped up in common vocabulary during the public hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through central and northern B.C.
edit.20150904.jpg

As a phrase, social licence popped up in common vocabulary during the public hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through central and northern B.C.

In essence, social licence means buy-in, a general acceptance that whatever plan on the table will benefit everyone, even if it involves a certain degree of sacrifice or risk. Furthermore, it means the majority of people will abide by the decision, however reluctantly.

Social licence isn't just applicable when considering pipelines or other major natural resource developments. The phrase has value when considering other public and private initiatives. As city council contemplates changes to its smoking bylaw and enforcement of bike lanes, it needs to look at both of these matters through the social licence lens.

All of the smoking bylaws and workplace regulations regarding indoor smoking to date have worked not because people weren't afraid of breaking the law. Instead, smokers no longer have the social licence to smoke at their desks, in restaurants, on airplanes and all other indoor public spaces. The rules merely reinforced society's changing views towards smoking and smokers.

The proposed city bylaw would ban smoking and tobacco use in all outdoor playgrounds, bus shelters, sports facilities and parks, as well as extending the smoke-free zone to nine metres from the door or window of any building and 25 metres from any outdoor sports facility or playground.

Yet the modern smoker is already greeted with a mixture of pity and revulsion by a majority of citizens. Pity that this unfortunate soul can't use willpower, encouragement/pestering from friends and family and medical aids to overcome their horrible addiction. Revulsion that people would choose to so recklessly damage their health but also the health of anyone nearby and that they would share the stink of the smoke and on their clothes and breath with everyone around them.

The social pressure to not smoke inside public buildings has made enforcement unnecessary but there is still work to be done. Enforcement is needed of smoking directly outside buildings, starting with the folks smoking right outside the entrances to shopping malls, arenas and the hospital, to give just three examples. There's no escaping secondhand smoke when coming and going from Pine Centre, from the hospital or from a Kings or Cougars game. That needs to change and enforcement of the current rules, not tougher new bylaws, is the answer.

The same clarity is needed for bike lanes. The city took a provincial grant of $250,000 to upgrade its bike lanes without considering either enforcement or social licence. Cyclists enjoy an increasing amount of social licence to share roads with automobiles, but only so long as they don't excessively interfere with the rights of drivers. The increasing number of both cyclists and bike lanes has exposed the fact that it's dangerous for cyclists and vehicles to share that space. Allowing parking in bike lanes poses a serious threat to both cyclists and drivers.

There needs to be a citywide ban on parking in bike lanes and it needs to be enforced but it then begs the question of where are the best places for cyclists and bike lanes. Cyclists are not allowed on sidewalks. Cyclists are not allowed on Fifth Avenue from Highway 97, heading east into the downtown because the street is too narrow to safely allow cyclists. They must enter and leave downtown heading west on Eighth, Tenth or 15th Avenue. Enforcement needs to also include ticketing cyclists riding on Fifth Avenue, on sidewalks and anywhere else they don't belong.

While further bylaws on public smoking are not needed because smokers have less and less social licence to do so, some enforcement is still needed in spaces where the rules and social licence are hazy. Same goes for bike lanes. The rules and social licence for cyclists and bike lanes is unclear and has created confusion. Clearly worded bylaws and strong enforcement are needed to avoid conflict, reduce the risk of dangerous collisions and give cyclists the protection they need.

Over time, parking in a clearly marked bike lane will be seen as ridiculous and socially unacceptable as parking on a sidewalk or smoking in an indoor public place, making enforcement less necessary. Until then, some rules of the road are necessary, along with some tickets to back them up.

-- Managing editor Neil Godbout