Cyclist billed by ICBC vows to fight for vulnerable road users

Ben Bolliger is on a mission to find out how many cyclists in the province, like him, have been billed by ICBC after being involved in a crash with a car.

Two weeks ago, Bolliger received a letter from the provincial motor vehicle insurer saying he owed over $3,700 for damage to the hood and windshield of the Mercedes Benz that hit him as he pedalled through a Vancouver intersection last July. 

"You were driving an uninsured vehicle at the time of the loss. This means you do not have insurance coverage for this loss and must repay the cost of our insured's claim," reads the letter.

Bolliger said the driver blew through a stop sign. The impact left him with a badly injured right arm which he says he'll never have full use of again. 

ICBC found Bolliger to be 50 per cent at fault for the crash.

After tweeting about his plight, the story received wide media coverage. Then, to Bolliger's surprise, a number of other cyclists started contacting him with similar stories.

"It's not just isolated to me," he said. "What I want to know is exactly how many other vulnerable road users have received these letters and how much money ICBC has collected based on their premise that a cyclist is an uninsured vehicle."

The concept of "vulnerable road user" exists in law in Ontario, but not in B.C. The category includes pedestrians, cyclists and road workers, and puts a greater onus on motor vehicle drivers to behave responsibly on the road.

The concept also underpins policy across Europe where countries long ago adopted some versions of strict liability in cases of motor vehicle-cyclists collisions. 

Generally, strict liability assumes the car driver is liable for damages in a crash, unless they can prove otherwise, because a driver brings more risk to the road than someone on a bike.

"When it comes to the use of roads we are not all equal," said European Cyclists' Federation policy officer Ceri Woolsgrove, speaking from Brussels. 

"There's a difference between a two tonne vehicle with a 200 horsepower engine and, say, an eight kilogram bike with 150 watts of power," he said.

In Europe, 83 per cent of cycling fatalities and 99 per cent of pedestrian deaths are the result of crashes with motorized vehicles, according to Woolsgrove. 

In Canada, 50 cyclists and 266 pedestrians were killed in crashes with cars in 2020, the most recent numbers published by Transport Canada.