Clément Ouimet tragically died on Mount Royal in October 2017, during the municipal election campaign. He trained on the mountain like many young and old to get in shape and to feel alive.
Posted at 3:00 p.m.
What could be better than a park, in the heart of a city, to practice a sporting activity? There is also skiing, snowshoeing, skating and Olmsted Road is invaded by people walking and running.
The hated pilot project
In the spring of 2018, a pilot project that prohibits transit through the mountains, for one summer, is set up in order to reserve the road for those who frequent the places, regardless of their mode of travel. Note that on weekdays, more than 80% of the cars driving there are just passing through. The Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) conducted a popular consultation by those who wanted to keep this “right” to take Camillien-Houde to cross the city more quickly. Their presence tainted the conclusions of the OCPM, which rejects the idea of banning transit and proposes to redevelop the access roads.
Where are we five years later?
Other collisions between cyclists and cars have occurred, there are seasonal bollards in the center of the street in segments where U-turns still occur, once the bollards are removed.
Cemeteries prohibit cyclists from riding in their peaceful lanes while cars are welcome there. The message received: “Cyclists, go ride somewhere else! »
Finally some work!
Chemin Remembrance was redone as part of the demolition of the Côte-des-Neiges interchange. Long overdue work! Remembrance has recently reopened, I took it by bike in August. The disappointment for cyclists is total! This steep street, once one-way, is now two-way, the sidewalk has been widened and cyclists and motorists rub shoulders up and down in a more restricted space. I find it hard to understand why we are reducing the space where cyclists ride after the tragedy of 2017.
The mountain is a mythical place for road cycling, it’s well known.
It was on Mount Royal, in 1974, that the World Cycling Championship saw Eddy Merckx win the event in front of a jubilant crowd of 250,000 people. The cycling event of the 1976 Olympic Games also took place there, as did the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal since 2010. How can an emblematic place of cycling competition, Mount Royal, not welcome cyclists with dignity? during the year ? We climb the mountain at a speed oscillating between 7 and 16 km/h and we descend more or less at the speed of cars.
Solutions
The Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) provides that a shoulder must be built on a road when the flow of cars fluctuates around 8,000 vehicles per day and more. About 10,000 of them pass per day on the mountain!
Considering the slope and the flow of cars and cyclists, a shoulder of at least two meters should be painted on the ground on Remembrance in order to delimit the spaces for each mode. But this space does not seem to have been planned!
The mountain is popular with cyclists, you should be able to ride there safely, without fear of being hit by a car. This principle should also guide the development of Camillien-Houde, which is not yet under construction. Will there be a shoulder so that cyclists can get on and off safely? Will a central mall be built to permanently eliminate dangerous U-bends?
Why so little regard for cyclists who ride on Mount Royal when we immediately accept that cars circulate there without hindrance? The misunderstanding is total, while we rub shoulders with an extremely popular and constantly developing REV! Where is the coherence of the actions of the city which has nevertheless developed a policy aptly named “Montreal physically active”? Why not attach more importance to the safety of cyclists on Mount Royal when it is being redeveloped?