Kevin Sylvester, Where Is Your Wisdom Now?

Kevin Sylvester is, in my opinion, the best sportscaster in all of radio and television. I admit that I don't have an extensive knowledge of sportscasters, but the reason I say that he's the best is because he's the only one I don't have the urge to turn off when the sports news comes up. I'm not one of those people who is crazy about sports. Anyway, Kevin (who is on leave from the CBC for a year at U of T as a Massey College Fellow), is a serious cyclist. One of his major irritations is people who ride their bikes on the sidewalk. In Toronto, only idiots and children ride their bikes on the sidewalk.

Now, I'm not one of those stuck up Toronto-is-the-centre-of-the-world people. I like Ottawa. I'm enjoying myself here. But I have to say that there are a lot of adults riding bikes on the sidewalks here. Who thinks it's a good idea to ride a bike in an area with heavy pedestrian traffic, like on or near a university campus with more than 31,000 students (http://www.report.uottawa.ca/2005/en/facts_figures/)?

I've almost been run over like, once a day since I got here three weeks ago, trying to avoid bikes coming in both directions. I don't ride a bike in Toronto becaue I am sort of afraid of the cars (whereas I only rode a bike when I was in Italy and the drivers are crazier there but know how to deal with bikes). There's not that much traffic in Ottawa! If you're too afraid to ride with the cars, please get off the sidewalks. It's called a sidewalk because it's that part on the SIDE of the road where you WALK.

Idiots.