Kitchener family lines busy street with bananas to educate drivers about bike safety

A Kitchener family is lining the streets with fruit to prove a point about bike safety.

Katie Smith, her husband, and three children were out in front of Sandhills Pubic School on Friday morning with a creative reminder to obey the rules of the road and to keep bikers safe.

Smith created a campaign to encourage drivers to stop from pulling into bike lanes to drop their kids off and pick their kids up from school, something that poses a significant danger to students who ride bikes.

“My kiddos bike to school, as do many others, and they can’t use the bike lane because cars continually pull over, making the kids go into the live lanes of traffic to get around them,” said Smith.

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Smith added that the Region of Waterloo should step in and enforce bylaw more strictly or install infrastructure to keep kids who bike and walk to school safe.

“Ultimately, that’s not working, just getting the education out to the parents,” said Smith. “We really need the region to step up and put in some bollards for the bike lanes.”

The Smiths placed bananas on the road in place of bollards to demonstrate the line that exists between the bike lanes and the vehicle lanes. At least one of those bananas was squished, in-part proving their point.

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Bike safety is front of mind for many in the region as students head back to school.

On Wednesday, a teen riding his bike in front of a school in Guelph was sent to hospital after being struck by a vehicle.

“Just because you’re in a rush, doesn’t mean you’re above the law,” said Smith. “We really need to make sure that our kiddos are safe.”