Vancouver to review truck side guard motion after cyclist death
Posted July 19, 2022 7:00 am.
Last Updated July 19, 2022 7:10 am.
There’s a push for Vancouver to make side guards on big trucks mandatory to prevent deadly crashes with cyclists and pedestrians.
A motion is set to go before city council Tuesday. It would only affect City of Vancouver fleets but work is underway to try to make this a standard across the country.
But side guards aren’t the only proposal before the city. City councillor Rebecca Bligh notes there are several actions mentioned in this motion, including advocating for the federal government to work with Transport Canada to look at fleets that operate in urban centres. The motion also calls for the city to press the province to do the same.
Related article: Should trucks in B.C. have side guards to protect cyclists?
“To look at amending charters and bylaws in order to mandate the same safety measures on those vehicles that are using our provincial infrastructure,” Bligh explained.
“With those three pieces in place, we hope to capture entire fleets that are working, recognizing that there are limitations for what these heavy-duty vehicles are able to see — line of sight — and we take a responsibility as a city where we promote bike infrastructure to also make sure that it is safe for residents to use.”
The motion comes just weeks after 28-year-old Agustín Beltrán, a first-year economics PhD student at UBC, was killed when a dump truck collided with his bike downtown.
Beltrán was pulled under the vehicle in the crash.
Side guards are metal panels attached to the lower sides of trucks — the space between the front and back wheels. They are meant to prevent cyclists and pedestrians from sliding under the vehicle and tires during a collision.
Dave Earle with the BC Trucking Association says the group is keeping an eye on what will come out of Vancouver council, adding the association is open to making changes.
However, he notes it’s not as easy as just installing any kind of design — it has to be the right one.
“Some of them have been found not to be helpful, some of them have been found to be problematic. It just depends on what’s there,” Earle explained, adding safety also goes beyond just side guards.
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“Nothing makes it absolutely safe to mix modes of transportation on roadways. Nothing. And what we have to really, really be mindful of is what can we do to make sure that we’re making the best decisions possible, both for equipment and for training and for education?”
Earle has previously pointed out that there are already some safety measures, such as trailers with long solid fiberglass fairings that run down the side of the truck, in place.
While the fairings in particular are mainly used for reducing drag, they also stop cyclists from sliding underneath the wheels, he earlier told CityNews.
Vancouver councillor wants to see safety audit
Meanwhile, Bligh says work to keep all road users safe doesn’t end with rules for big trucks.
She would like to see an audit to help highlight which areas need immediate attention.
“And I believe our city staff are endeavouring to do that work,” she explained.
“In Canada, in North America, right-hand turns on red lights, for example, is allowed, but in many other jurisdictions that’s actually not the case. So not to say that we want to be prescriptive about limiting right-hand turns, but there is a call for us to take an audit approach and make sure that we are looking at high-incident areas and more complex infrastructure where there are cars, bikes, pedestrians, of course, and many modes of transportation all being guided and directed,” Bligh added.
Meanwhile, Vancouver police confirm the investigation into Beltrán’s death is ongoing.
