Sorry, skaters, but you’ll have to be patient

Armchair Mayor column, Kamloops Daily News, May 15, 2010

I heard a story recently from a runner who was heading down the Columbia Street hill when a young skateboarder rocketed past, freedom personified, hair waving in his wake. He was, clearly, in the zone.

Until he hit a high spot in the cement, tumbled ass over teakettle — getting tremendous air, as they say in skating parlance — and landed on his back. As he lay motionless, my informant, fearing the worst, picked up her pace to get to him and offer whatever help she could.

Was his back broken? Was his helmetless skull fractured? Were there shattered limbs? Would he be paralyzed for life?

“Are you OK?!” she asked as she reached for her cell phone to call 911.

His eyes flickered open and, without moving, he said, “Whoa, man…. that was insane.”

Then he picked himself up, collected his board, and went on his way.

Skaters have amazing resiliency, which compensates for with their frequent lack of common sense. Skateboarding is a highly skillful athletic endeavour. It takes balance and concentration just to make the things go in a straight line without falling off (as I discovered when I officially opened the McArthur Island skate park several years ago by skating through a ribbon).

It’s carried out on very hard surfaces — concrete or asphalt — and, for that reason, it’s risky. Wearing helmets is gradually catching on, but many skaters still regard them as something only a wuss would be seen in.

Skating is not just a hobby or a sport, it’s a culture, with a uniform and a language all its own, a world in which FS 540s, McTwists, heelflips, goofy-foots and ollies reign.

I admire skaters and enjoy watching them perform, but I’m having trouble with the proposition that, first and foremost, skaters are dedicated environmentalists who want to save Mother Earth from fossil fuels.

Good on them for not adding to the carbon footprint, but the fact longboards and skateboards don’t run on gasoline is incidental to the main reason for riding one — fun.

The current debate about freeing skaters to use city streets at will has nothing to do with whether motorists should show more common sense or whether we all need to do more to stop climate change.

What it’s about is public safety, including that of the skaters. They’ve become part of the multiplicity of users of a road system that was designed for 3,000-lb. (or, around 1,500 kg. if you prefer, or about the same as a large rhinocerous and one of his friends) cars, not for six-lb. (or three kg., or about as much as a chihuahua) boards with four tiny wheels and no brakes, seatbelts or steering wheels.

Maybe the day will come when skaters are given a proper share of the road in the same way cyclists are claiming their piece of roadway real estate. Even that, as every cyclist knows, is a work in progress — skaters will have to wait awhile.

It’s not as though the City hasn’t done anything for skaters. When they promised to stop wrecking the stairways of public buildings and getting in the way of drivers if only they had somewhere to practise their skills, the City built them a $400,000 skateboard park. (As it happens, I voted against it because I didn’t want the City to borrow the money, which didn’t please my teenage son.)

In return, the skaters promised to keep their beautiful new park — one of the best in Canada — free of graffiti. Today, that park is a trouble spot for the local graffiti task force charged with keeping Kamloops free of tagging.

So when people talk about the bad rap skaters have received, I have to point out that today’s skaters have inherited a certain lack of cred from those who’ve preceded them, but neither are they offering anything in return if the City gives them what they want.

They simply ask for a free ride, with no commitment even to a code of safe behaviour. That, at least, would give our local lawmakers pause to reconsider.

In the meantime, the City is left with the public safety issue. The current regulations — which, it has been brought to my attention, I signed into law — allow skateboarding on city streets with the exception of a specific few with steep hills. Those are Columbia, Batchelor Drive, Summit Drive, Pacific Way, Hillside, First and Third Avenues, Highland Drive and Aberdeen Drive. In addition, they can’t ride in traffic or on sidewalks in commercial zones.

That’s not victimization, it’s reasonable limits on behaviour. Fines range from $25 to $2,000, which is typical for a City bylaw. Only the most chronic offender would be fined at the top of the scale.

The skater who had the “insane” ride down Columbia Street could just as well have landed in nearby Royal Inland Hospital or even in a wheelchair, and if a pedestrian had been walking up the hill there could have been two victims.

There’s plenty of scope for responsible skateboarding in Kamloops, but no freedom is absolute.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com