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Auto reforms worry cyclists     © Thompson’s World Insurance News 2009. No reproduction without written consent.     Toronto lawyer Patrick Brown doesn’t cycle in the city any more because he finds it’s too dangerous.     And he believes the provincial government’s recently announced auto insurance reforms are going to make it even worse for the city’s cyclists and pedestrians.     “The present law reform is not fair to cyclists, public transit users, or pedestrians,” he told Thompson’s.     “The reduced benefits being proposed will apply to innocently injured cyclists, pedestrians and transit users.”     Mr. Brown said he supports some of the reforms as a member of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, such as the “long-overdue” elimination of the $15,000 deductible on fatality claims, which cyclists were pushing for.     With the firm Leish Orlando, he is concerned over the lack of ‘access-to-justice’ changes such as not lowering the deductible for medical and rehabilitation benefits coverage but rather creating a discount package.     “When anyone, cyclist, pedestrian, car driver, is injured or killed by a bad driver, they will have various benefits available to them.     “With the new changes . . . many of these benefits are being drastically reduced” with the ability to buy extra coverage held as justification.     “However, if you are a cyclist, pedestrian or transit user, and do not have a car insurance policy, you do not have the ability to buy up on your benefits. You have no policy to do so. You must accept these reductions.”     More in our November 16 edition        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.