Should bicycle accidents be covered by general car insurance?

In late September, Luc Allard was cycling home from his downtown Montreal office when someone riding an electric Bixi unexpectedly swerved into him, causing a powerful head-on collision that snapped his ankle.
"It's tough to get around," said Allard, who had to undergo surgery and is still working from home with his leg in a cast, more than a month later.
"I was scared to go down the stairs at first, so I stayed in my room for the first three weeks."
His wife has been forced to work from home as well, taking care of him, their kids, and their house as he can't do much except stay in bed all day.
He said his employer provides insurance, and he has been able to take paid medical leave, but he wonders what would have happened if he'd had less security.
"There's a lot of people who don't have private insurance at work and get into these accidents," he said.
Allard is not alone in this concern. As e-scooters and e-bikes, also known as micromobility devices, increase in popularity, so has the lobbying effort to tighten rules on their use.
Bebronne mentioned that certain European countries enforce a 25 km/h speed limit on power-assisted bicycles. Even though a mere seven km/h difference might appear negligible, it can diminish the severity of an impact by 64 percent, she said.
While an experienced cyclist on a non-assisted bike can pedal much faster, capping the limit at 25 km/h would still be a few points speedier than the average cyclist's commuting speed, she said.
"People don't feel as comfortable having to share the path with these vehicles that are faster," said Bebronne.
Vélo Québec wants e-scooters to be banned from bike paths and be covered by the SAAQ if there's a crash, she said.
Beyond that, Vélo Québec has spent the last year lobbying for all road crashes to be covered, regardless of whether a licensed vehicle is involved.
Car drivers are covered by the SAAQ if they are injured removing snow from their car, she said, but a pedestrian hit by a cyclist is not covered even if everybody involved in the collision is a licensed car owner who pays the annual fees, contributing to the SAAQ's coffers.
While electric modes of transport are becoming an increasing issue, Vélo Québec is not opposed to power-assisted bicycles as they encourage people, even those with reduced mobility, to exercise and, in some cases, leave their car at home during their daily commute, she said.
But the bike path network in Montreal needs to be upgraded to accommodate the boom in cycling's popularity as well as the increased use of these e-devices, she said.

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