I was riding my e-bike today on 92 Street near 118 Ave, which is a one-way with sharrows and a contraflow lane, and I came across the guy everyone warns you about.
Despite loads of signage telling people that vehicles and bikes drive/ride in single file, a company truck got behind me and started laying on the horn, clearly wanting me to hop into the contraflow lane so he could get by. There was no way in hell I was doing that. There were already two cyclists in that lane, one going the wrong way and one coming right at us. So I stayed put, as I'm entitled to do. He would just need to be patient for half a block before the road opened up near 118.
More unhinged honking. Suddenly, he pulled into the oncoming bike lane with the oncoming cyclist maybe 15 metres away and floored it. When he turned at 118, he fully turned his head to glare at me instead of watching where he was going, pedal on the gas.
All of that to save maybe 15 seconds in a neighbourhood full of kids, just to accelerate down a road that's full of daycare centres. I was on my way to pick up my son from daycare, with the child seat right there on the rear rack.
I'm not a cycling commuter and rack up maybe 500 km per year in the warm months, but even still I'm surprised this is the first time I've experienced something like this. It was a company truck from Poulin's Pest Control, whose shop is just 4 blocks from that very spot. This happened at 4:58 pm--so I guess making it back for quitting time is more important than the possibility of killing 3 people. They're just cyclists after all! They barely count as people, right?
I'm just glad my son wasn't in the bike yet. I have felt so safe riding in the city's bike lanes these last few years that I guess I took it for granted that people like this exist!
Update October 15, 2026
In case anyone is reading this weeks later and wanted to know what happened. After 2+ weeks of my email to Poulin's Edmonton and the head office in Winnipeg not being answered, I posted my experience as a review on Google Maps--not something I really wanted to do. I received a reply to that the very next day:
Good day [name], thank you for bringing this to our attention. I had reviewed your previous email and attempted to reach out to you but did not hear anything back. The conduct of our driver, as described in your report, falls far below our standards and is entirely unacceptable. Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken, and the employee has been terminated.
I would appreciate it if you could contact me directly at our Edmonton office at your convenience so we can fully discuss this matter.
Warm Regards, Shane
I never reviewed an email, and I checked spam multiple times before I posted the review. Still, I will take them at their word and consider the matter closed. I plan on taking the review down later today.