Stephen Vance, Staff
Meaford Councillor Jaden Calvert brought a motion before council at their September 12 meeting asking that council and municipal staff review the municipality’s policy on the use of skateboards within the municipality.
Since 1987 Meaford has had a bylaw in place banning the use of skateboards on all municipal roads, sidewalks, and parking lots.
In recent years, skateboarding and long-boarding have gained in popularity. Meaford is home to a manufacturer of long-boards – a longer version of the traditional skateboard that has become a popular option for low-cost, environmentally friendly urban transportation.
Calvert suggested to his fellow councillors that the bylaw should be revisited. Calvert’s motion noted that “the Municipality of Meaford should support environmentally-friendly methods of travel”, and that “cycling, skateboarding and long-boarding are modes of active transportation, which can promote health and well-being”, and asked that staff be directed to review existing bylaws related to bicycles, skateboards, long-boards, in-line skates, scooters and their use on Meaford’s streets and sidewalks.
Calvert asked that a staff report along with draft bylaws be presented to council no later than March of 2017, and that a public meeting or information centre be held in order for the public to be able to provide input.
Councillor Shirley Keaveney suggested that one solution might be to allow the use of skateboards on most roads, but impose restrictions on certain streets that might be dangerous for skateboarders and motorists.
“I’ve given this a fair bit of thought, having raised two sons in Meaford who love to skateboard. Should we look at this in similar terms as we did with off-road vehicles, and look at designated routes? Driving home from work a couple of nights ago, I noticed a young man riding right up the middle of Sykes Street relatively late at night on his skateboard, and I thought it was a bit of a dangerous circumstance,” Keaveney told council.
Keaveney also wondered how best to distinguish between a mode of transportation and recreational equipment.
Councillor Calvert agreed that some rules and regulations should be included in any bylaw developed by the municipality, citing Kamloops, British Columbia as an example of a municipality which allows use of skateboards in their municipality, but has designated some hills and high-traffic roads as off-limits to skateboarders.
The fact that, despite the bylaw banning them, skateboards are regularly used on Meaford’s streets was not lost on Councillor Mike Poetker, who expressed doubt that Meaford would see any increase in skateboard use should the 1987 bylaw be nullified.
“If I’m not mistaken there is an old bylaw that says ‘there shall be no long-boards’, and as Councillor Keaveney was saying, there are long-boards, so nobody is paying attention to the old bylaw anyway. Are we going to see a massive influx of skateboarders, long-boarders and in-line skaters if we have this (the old bylaw) removed? That’s really the question,” said Poetker.
Meaford CAO Denyse Morrisey cautioned that one area that might be impacted if the old bylaw is revoked is insurance.
“Where it will have an impact is in our insurance. So if there were areas that are designated, or not designated, and there’s a fatality, or some kind of injury on a public road and we have designated this an allowable activity for whatever reason, transportation or recreation, we are culpable,” suggested Morrissey.
In July, The Independent asked Grey County OPP if there have been any skateboard accidents on Meaford’s streets in recent years. Media relations officer Alina Grelik told The Independent that while their database filters don’t specifically highlight whether skateboards are involved in accidents with motor vehicles, she said, “Off the cuff, I can’t think of any recent occurrences in our jurisdiction. I believe there was one in Collingwood’s area a while back.”
In 2011 the office for the Chief Coroner for Ontario published a ‘pedestrian death review’ that noted that in 2010, 93 percent of fatalities involving pedestrians and motor vehicles were attributed to those simply walking. Six percent were jogging, and just one percent involved skateboarders.
“Encumbrances, such as walking a dog can be distracting to pedestrians. When distractions are combined with encumbrances such as carrying bags, approximately 20% of pedestrians may have some form of distraction,” suggested the 66-page report. “For example, (in 2010 pedestrian fatalities) six pedestrians were running and one was skateboarding at the time they were struck. It is not possible to conclusively state that these activities were distractions, however, they may have played some role.”
Council approved the proposal for staff to review existing bylaws and to bring a report to council before March of 2017.
