Question: I cycle along a rural road near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. The road I am talking about has a 60 km/h speed limit and a marked one metre wide shoulder on each side. On garbage pickup days some people place their residential bins on the shoulder. When that occurs cyclists are forced to move over into the roadway. Is this practice allowed?
I am familiar with this road as I travel it often. It is rare to find a vehicle that is not over the speed limit which presents another risk to alternative transportation users like cyclists.
Let's start by looking at where a cyclist must ride:
183 (2) A person operating a cycle
(c) must, subject to paragraph (a), ride as near as practicable to the right side of the highway,
In the photo above, the paved shoulder is part of the highway and in the absence of the bins the rider is required to use it. The result is the rider moving back and forth from the shoulder to the roadway and back again.
Drivers are reluctant to behave properly when the cyclist takes the lane that they are entitled to. This increases the risk for the cyclist.
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit
The agency that has the ultimate control of this road is the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Transit. They agreed that there is no law in either the Transportation Act or the Motor Vehicle Act that would make it illegal to park the bins on the road shoulder pending pickup.
The MOTT advised that the regional district should be consulted as they had authority over the collection program.
The Regional District of Nanaimo
The Regional District responded promptly:
We advise residents to avoid placing carts on sidewalks or in bike lanes to ensure accessibility and safety for all users. If the gravel is uneven and carts are prone to tipping, that may explain why some residents are placing them closer to the road.
We’re currently developing a visual guide to help residents navigate various cart placement scenarios—such as areas without sidewalks or bike lanes, uneven gravel, or sloped driveways. We appreciate your patience as we work to provide clearer guidance.
Where would the nearest flat spot be to place bins? I suggest that it is where the resident's driveway meets the road.
Some municipal bylaws dictate where you place your bins and often require a minimum of 1m of space on all sides.
The Waste Removal Contractor
If the bins were placed at the edge of the pavement the collection truck would be more likely to move to the right, allowing following traffic an opportunity to pass. Apparently the contractor has told the RDN that on certain roads, drivers actually prefer cars not to attempt passing, as it can be dangerous.
An inquiry with the waste removal contractor failed to get a response.
Bins Cause Difficulty
Having to pass the collection truck once is preferable to having to continually move around parked bins. Please consider alternative transportation users when you put your bins out for pickup wherever you live in the province.
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CAN-BIKE instructs people on bikes to find the best line and stick with it to maintain visibility. It's the same with these bins as it is with parked cars on the side of the road, bouncing in and out of the line of sight of people driving the lane is eventually going to surprise someone and that's when the person on the bike gets hurt. It's not intuitive to people especially when they are new to cycling and the people in cars might first get irked if they don't realize the reasoning. I'd still like to see some time spent on a bicycle with an instructor when getting a driving licence.
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Also the case where bins are placed in designated bike lanes (not separated) near me. In either case where a cyclist has obstructions or conditions that jeopardize their safety (potholes etc) they are entitled to take the lane and driver response should be to yield until safe to pass just as if they were a farm tractor or other slow moving vehicle.
For cyclists this means lots of shoulder checking and/or using tech.
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Your bins column was illuminating. I live in Naramata where the road link to Penticton suffers from the same issues, also complicated by the overgrowth of branches and hedging into the shoulder.
What strikes me, though, is that with a minimum of effort, the owners of every bin in this photo could take a shovel and in less than 5 minutes create a suitable level spot off the shoulder for the bin(s).
I find the comment from the driver that moving the collection truck slightly off the road creates more unsafe passing to be a bit egregious - some drivers will try to use the oncoming lane no matter what.
Most disappointing is the legislative vacuum from municipalities, regional districts, and the Motor Vehicle Act that fails to address this issue. I don’t know if this is a necessary function of the compartmentalized bureaucratic mind, but the lack of cooperation and consultation amongst various agencies to create a cycle-safe environment can lead only to this kind of cock-up.
Perhaps starting with a question from an economic development officer as to how cycle tourism can be promoted as a local economic driver, the various jurisdictions could begin problem-solving together.
Here in Naramata, it’s life threatening to walk along the Naramata road from winery to winery, and only slightly less so to cycle to Penticton along the road. I myself never do it anymore!
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Being consistent