Responding to cycling concerns, Halifax councillor tells talk show vehicles should go

Halifax councillor Shawn Cleary has suggested vehicles be removed from Waverley Road to make room for cyclists.

A Halifax Regional Municipality councillor is standing by comments he made Monday on a local talk radio show regarding vehicles on Waverley Road.

A caller suggested something needs to be done about Waverley Road – including possibly removing cyclists – claiming the status quo could lead to a fatal outcome.

In response, Cleary, the councillor for Halifax West Armdale, said vehicles should be removed before cyclists.

“I’m happy to remove cars from Waverley Road,” he said.

At first, it sounded like a joke. But minutes later, he doubled down.

“I would be fine with removing the cars from Waverley Road,” Cleary said. “If drivers are unwilling to follow the law, then maybe we should remove the drivers.”

“That’ll work, ha, ha, ha,” Jim Cross joked in an interview with CTV News Tuesday.

But he does agree cycling can be challenging to navigate as a motorist in the area.

“The hills and the turns… you can’t seem to get by (the cyclists),” he said. “There’s no way you want to take a chance, because somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Speaking to CTV News Tuesday, Cleary said his comments were made “both humorously and seriously.”

Cleary says finding the balance between safety of motorists and cyclists isn’t difficult.

“The Motor Vehicle Act allows for multiple modes of transportation and we all have to share that space safely,” he said. “If you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t be driving.”

Asked about his response to motorists stuck behind, unable to pass cyclists due to safety concerns, Cleary said “so, be behind the cyclist.”

“There’s no desire to remove vehicles or bikes on the road,” said deputy mayor Tony Mancini, whose district encompasses part of Waverley Road. “Safety, though, needs to be addressed. We should take a look at that, because there has been, unfortunately, a death not that long ago that happened. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future, too.”

Mancini says education is needed on both sides: for drivers to be patient and only pass when it’s safe, and for cyclists to ride share the road safely and ride in a single line.

While a significant portion of Waverley Road does have bike lanes, there are none to be found farther out where the road narrows.

Justin McNely, a cyclist, also hopes both vehicles and bicycles can co-exist on the road.

“I like cycling there, so I hope I could keep cycling there in the future, and I don’t bother too many people,” he said.

Shawn MacDonald, another Waverley resident, says a balance may take creativity and investment, but it would be worth it.

“We are trying to encourage the use of multimodal transportation,” he says. “There is a place for cyclists on the road. There has to be. But there are also ways that you can allow multimodal transportation to coexist.”

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