Health profs vs. UBCO bikes

Photo: Google Street View

The right-hand portion of Curtis Road was being used as a shortcut by students and staff of UBCO.

It seems that when it comes to promoting healthy living, sharing that message in class is a lot different than sharing your road with cyclists.

It was recently brought to Castanet's attention that two of the six petitioners who live on Curtis Road, and legally blocked it for hundreds of cyclists, work in health promotion.

The six residents who took on UBC Okanagan and recently won their battle to partially close their private road to cyclists are David Lafontaine, Kathy Lafontaine, Brian Callaghan, Doris Callaghan, Armand Gilbert, Beth Gilbert and Claire Budgen.

Budgen is an associate professor with the faculty of health and social development. As well as being a well-being initiative director at UBCO, the university website notes her areas of research interest are healthy community development, young adult health and preventive health care.

Callaghan, a former associate professor, now retired, focused her teaching on population health, youth health, health promotion, chronic disease prevention and influencing change.

“It is bizarre. It is very ironic,” says Rebecca Tyson, a faculty member who speaks for the campus cycling community. “It seems to be about a 'not in my backyard' kind of thing. It is sad.”

She says the UBC Okanagan cycling community is well aware those teachers are involved in the case. Tyson says she does not know the two women personally, but she knew they were involved.

“If I were a cyclist in their department, I think I would find that very difficult, but I have no reason to run into them in my work.”

Tyson feels those six individuals have put everyone in a tough position, including other residents of Curtis Road.

“What I can say is that I am sure, with different people on that road, this all could have resolved years ago,” says Tyson. “There are many wonderful people on that road, and poor them, they have been dragged through a lot as well.”

A safe, legal cycling route to UBCO has been a problem with no solution since UBC took over the campus in 2006. Until recently, nearly 200 cyclists accessed the campus daily via Curtis Road, around Robert Lake.

When the Supreme Court decision came down earlier in the month, cyclists were warned by campus security that private residents may threaten them with trespassing charges if they were to continue on the route. 

UBCO media relations manager Paul Marck says people were free to continue on the public road, and several did – only to be turned away at the private driveway entrance by the property owners.

“If it was just an inconvenience, that would be one thing, but you are asking me to bike on the highway, which is extremely dangerous, versus biking on their road,” says Tyson. “It is a road, for heavens sake. They drive trucks and farm machinery on it; the bikes are not doing any damage.”

She says while some of the cyclists are strong enough and agile enough to manage the alternative mountain biking path, others are riding the highway.

“That just scares the heck out of me,” says Tyson. “If you drive up there and watch as you're approaching the bridge and watch that right hand lane where cyclists go, it gets smaller and smaller and smaller, and then it completely goes away. I did it once, and I will never do it again.”

Tyson says there are now only two legal ways of accessing the campus, but neither are safe or year-round cycling alternatives to Curtis Road.

“We are stuck enough that we are putting in the time and effort to draw attention to the issue. I am hopeful that maybe we can get enough people at the table to start to solve the problem,” says Tyson. “We are committed to seeing a real bike route to campus that works for people and hoping that we can rally the city around that idea.”

Castanet was unable to reach Callaghan or Budgen for comment.  

**This is a corrected version of the story that incorrectly stated Campus Security threatened cyclists with trespassing charges**