Re: cycle-paths, safe or not

   Joe wrote
> Unfortunately I have seen cops try to enforce such laws even when the 
> don't exist. I actually fought one such case in court. The end result was 
> a judge that told the deputy that it was his job to enforce the laws 
> enacted by legislature, not make up laws on his own"

   Good. One of the interesting changes is that Velo Quebec lobbied the 
gov't to remove the helmet law which required children under 12 to wear 
helmets. Their case is that a lot of people will not cycle if helmets are 
required and the path system is very safe. Apparently the gov't agrees and 
this provision has been dropped.

Between the lines I think that a major reason is b/c the Bixi bike rental 
system does not provide helmets and there could be a liability question with 
a helmet law.

The larger problem is that Montreal is made up of 27 municipalities and at 
least 6 have mandatory helmet laws that apply to all cyclists.

Jim Blair