Cycle paths | Montreal will crack down harder on illegally parked vehicles

Montreal is stepping up its surveillance of motorists who park illegally in bike paths. After the Réseau express vélo (REV) Saint-Denis, officers will now circulate on seven busy axes to issue statements of offence. And soon, they will also be able to tow cars blocking the way.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

“It’s illegal to park on a bike path, and we want it to be known”, sums up the head of transport and mobility on the Montreal executive committee, Sophie Mauzerolle, in an interview with The Press.

At the end of May, when it announced its 2022 bicycle program, the Plante administration had revealed that the REV Saint-Denis would be the subject of a pilot project of continuous monitoring in order to crack down on vehicles parked on cycle paths, a phenomenon “increasingly reported” to municipal authorities. Agents from the Sustainable Mobility Agency (AMD) are assigned to it.

Recently, seven axes have been added to this pilot project: rue Peel, between rue Smith and rue Ottawa, avenue Laurier, between boulevard Saint-Laurent and avenue Papineau, rue McGill, between rue Saint- Jacques and de la Commune, rue de Verdun, rue Adam, in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the Prieur-Sauriol axis, in Ahuntsic, and the REV Viger/Saint-Antoine axis, in Ville-Marie and the South West.

On Peel Street, in particular, “we are particularly challenged for deleterious issues,” says Ms.^me Mauzerolle.

Between 1^er June and the 1^er last August — i.e. the first two months of the pilot project, including one where the REV Saint-Denis was the only area monitored — the City claims to have issued more than 400 statements of offense to motorists illegally parked in a bike path, the equivalent to seven a day. The fine is $173.

“Our desire remains to extend this to the entire territory eventually, but we are going there gradually. The AMD will meanwhile identify sectors where there seems to be more delinquency, says Sophie Mauzerolle. The idea, starting with the REV Saint-Denis, was to see the degree of intervention it would require and the number of officers needed. It is also an axis with more commercial sectors, others more inhabited, so it gives an idea of ​​where the main problems lie. »

Safety first

At Vélo Québec, the president and general manager, Jean-François Rheault, applauds the initiative. “We are especially happy to see that the City is adjusting quickly, following a pilot project during the year. The REV Saint-Denis is not the axis where there are the most problems. Adding McGill and Verdun will be particularly useful. They were the ones we had named for the future, ”he reacts.

As for the towing of vehicles blocking the passage, Mr. Rheault recalls that such a practice is already used in several cities, some even doing so in reserved lanes. “It certainly helps to solve the security problem, and instantly. It also contributes to education, to behavior change. When it happens to us, we remember it and we pay attention, ”believes the CEO.

He calls on the City to “continue to collect data” on the evolution of the cycling network, to “constantly adjust” and add even more monitoring on more axes, as the number of daily passages increases. increase.

This all comes as Quebec experienced a marked increase in the number of cyclists hospitalized during the pandemic, a phenomenon completely opposite to the trend in the rest of the population. According to data released Tuesday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the number of hospitalizations due to cycling injuries increased by 20% for the period from 1^er April 2020 to March 31, 2021. Some 1,199 cyclists ended up in the emergency room during this period, compared to 1,001 for the same period the previous year.

Meanwhile, as Quebecers were asked to stay at home due to the pandemic, the number of hospitalizations fell sharply from 67,374 to 60,792 compared to the previous year, a decrease of ‘around 10 %.

CIHI’s hypothesis to explain these statistics is quite simple: the number of cyclists has increased tenfold during the pandemic, for lack of other sports options available.

With the collaboration of Vincent Larin, The Press