Biking Montreal: Montreal’s Newest Bicycling Infrastructure Dazzles!

THIS IS THE 1,000TH STREETFILM OF ALL-TIME!

I was preparing to plan a visit Montreal (and also Paris!) just as Covid-19 halted plans last year. But one benefit of that delay is that my visit last month allowed me to see some of the newest Montreal protected bike lanes in full effect. And it is impressive.

The REV (the Réseau Express Vélo) is the newest one of those which is designed to be the spine of the new network. It and a batch of newer lanes mark a departure from Montreal’s bike building of the past: now one-way lanes on either side of the street are the emphasis going forward with 2-way dual lanes on one side of the street, some of which are too narrow, are now used less often.

Most extraordinary is the width some of the new bike infrastructure. You will see the REV for which about half of its length and it is sooooo wide I was laughing. Sometimes cyclists are dwarfed by the lane, which is a good thing. At one point I saw a family ride by three-abreast and someone STILL could pass!

Check it out. Really!

Montreal is a great city for biking anywhere you want to go in the city for the most part you can get there year after year we see the numbers and we see it being on the street there’s just so many people on their bikes and even in the winter it’s pretty

Fun to feel that you’re in a culture that encourages cycling there’s just so many of us in central boroughs that makes you feel that like this is a new standard it’s the best way to discover montreal by cycling also when it’s a hot day you have a nice breeze it’s quicker easier

Safer makes you feel better you see people everybody’s happy like what’s not to love in other cities that i’ve lived in i’ve always been an advocate for these things like pedestrianization and great bike lanes but actually getting to live it every day like walk out of my

House and just feel safe on the street it’s incredible the quality of our cycling infrastructure is getting much much better and in the last few years we’re finally really understanding what all ages and ability infrastructure should look like There’s almost like a thousand kilometers of cycling path and since we took office four years ago we decided to massively invest into a very strong network there was no no bike lane or almost nothing when i was young and since a couple of years there’s more and more bike lane so it’s

More secure on on bike path one of my kids even takes his bike to school which is seven kilometers every day and that wouldn’t be possible without the protected bike path that we have in montreal the bicycle culture is strong and this is what makes montreal perhaps so special

Eve in spite of the winter in spite of the hills it’s like it’s natural to just take your bike and go around the city yes we have a lot of cycling infrastructure but at least in the past people rode their bikes sort of in spite of our

Infrastructure not because of it so this is actually what montreal’s bike network used to look like this is an art installation by friend of mine michel de puen this is probably 15 years old or so things have gotten significantly better since then but we still have a ways to go

We’ve created the rev which is almost like highways for bikes it’s protected it’s wide there’s a bike box and there’s also bike lights dedicated to uh for people using their bikes our new system is called the rev which means the razor express velo or express bike network

Which is a play on words in french means uh dream so it’s like our dream network before the rev was just a regular street you had two lanes of cars and then cyclists had to inch their way somewhere between a car and just be careful like i would never send my kids

Biking throughout the city if the rev didn’t exist right away from day one it’s been packed with cyclists and it’s broken records for all the counter places like it’s already setting records for most cyclists in any kind of location in montreal uh saint annee recently got a new protected cycle track that were

Just built in 2020 around two 2.2 meters this makes it a very comfortable infrastructure to ride on they also added midway pedestrian crossings so they really do a great job at slowing down cars they also improve the bus stops the bus stops are much nicer now easier to access there’s more space for

People to wait it’s had a really transformative impact on that section of the city though because this was like it’s it’s a commercial street that had been struggling before and there was so much car traffic that it just wasn’t a really pleasant place to walk and now that we have the cycling

Infrastructure like the cars really actually have to go slow people really they’ll they’ll do an extra kilometer just to get on the rev just to be safer now more rev more more street what we have and less sparkings but for cars it’s making it a lot easier for people to use bikes

In like a in a practical fashion um so we’ve had a lot of like piecemeal development of bike lanes and now the focus is more on connecting everything together to make like a usable network okay everybody i’m well north of the city in montreal and i’m along the rev

And get ready for one of the widest bike lanes you have ever seen some sections are really very very generous like three and a half four meters wide so there’s space for cyclists to ride side by side and still have space for someone to pass the rev

Has been planned as a spine of the network so saint denis was the first big axis on the north south but there are other axes that are being planned [Applause] On clark here with the new protected bike path three years ago this bike path was improved uh used to be with bollards only they removed the bullets in the winter so this road was very wide but no bicycle infrastructure in the winter now they created this median with trees and vegetation

Not only that the path is open year round it’s also a much more pleasant street experience for everyone there’s a daycare right there and and it’s nicer for the pedestrians that walks and then the kids in other cities that i’ve lived in even with good bike infrastructure you kind

Of have to know the bike map of the city and you you you gain that knowledge over time and then eventually you like really know your way around i think with montreal you can just like head out of your house and go as the crow flies in

The direction that you want to go and there’s going to be a beautiful bike lane for you and you don’t need to like access this secret knowledge this bike lane along laurier park used to be parking and they removed the parking and made it a planted protected bike lane it’s super

Exciting now that it’s done you used to have to come on this other part over here um which was fine but now it’s like luxuriously beautiful of an experience to come through this intersection on a bike one thing i really like about montreal is they will implement like a

Bike lane with flex posts and the capital upgrade later is always much higher quality whenever a separated bike lane it gets built or for example when it starts being maintained in the winter it kind of changes the kind of users you get to see on those bike lanes

You get to see older folks you get to see more families kids women better infrastructure will actually make it more accessible to more people so right now we’re in the middle of pakensiek which is in a hamstick neighborhood and they they renovated the park and they added a bike lane a lot

More kids use it now it connects the borough together and this is something that was lacking in montreal so now we have this this uh bike lane and surreal bike lane above and they intersect the revs it’s fabulous because it’s so safe and it’s so useful and practical so this

Intersection is next to a major park it was kind of irregularly shaped it was a large triangle so it was a huge sea of asphalt and so they closed off the section to cars and uh dead-ended that street over there next to the park and put in this

Installation for kids to to climb on it’s called the island of volcanoes We’ve had many bi-directionals a cycling path in montreal so we know that it’s not comfortable enough it’s not safe enough it’s not wide enough because at every intersection it’s just too complicated for everyone this is how we worked before and this is not how we’re going to work right now

So we’re here in montreal at the corner of rochelle and saint-denis we can see the difference in generation of bicycle infrastructure rachel has a bi-directional bike path that was built in about 1985 uh said the knee in 2020. so we’re on belshas which is an east-west street

Where the city installed uh bike lanes in either direction separated so one one side of the streets going east one side of the street is going west it’s a change from uh the previous designs in montreal which had been bi-directional in one path so this gives people more space

For kids for commuters that way people can pass or ride side by side you know you see these cartoons where people say hey there shouldn’t be two bikes side by side but that’s the purpose of biking is you’re there to talk to people you’re there to socialize if you’re a family

You’re going to help your child and push them along you can’t teach a child to bike on a one lane one behind the other bike path it’s too dangerous they’re wider so you can see women you can see families using the backland which you don’t really see in

The older ones which are narrow and double direction but you can see the sea that are really trying to make like an investment I’ve always been using my bikes even when my kids were young and i have to say i was very sensitive to what is safe for me and so when i became mayor i brought those concerns and preoccupation and the more there is woman not only cycling but being around the table to

Make decisions the best it is so when we have this all age of abilities approach it serves everyone it’s really a common thing right it’s not like you’re a bike person if you ride a bike here everybody rides bikes here especially in the summer time and so

It really kind of generates that support to do more what we’re seeing with the hab now that people have gotten to experience it they realize the added value so now what we need to do is have more of those everywhere it needs to be really easy

Within a very short radius to just take some street with separated infrastructure where you know you’ll be safe where you know okay i’m going to write a few streets and then i’ll be on this amazing infrastructure while just have to ride fast and in a really direct

Way that’s how we’re going to get more people cycling You