Cycling program 2023 | Priority to neighborhoods poorly served by cycle paths

Montréal is continuing to develop its cycling network and, in 2023, will give priority to neighborhoods with fewer paths. The metropolis plans to extend 30 million this year to develop and upgrade 59 kilometers of track.

The Plante administration is due to unveil its 2023 cycling program on Tuesday. It provides for 53 projects, in 14 boroughs and four related cities. A “historic upgrade” of the cycling network will be carried out, among other things, in the boroughs of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Verdun and Montréal-Nord, which are much less well supplied with cycle paths.

“We will continue to develop the REV and ensure the offer in the sectors where the cycling culture is really developed, but more than ever, we want to give the possibility of cycling in the boroughs where it existed very little”, supports the adviser associated with the active transport, Mariane Giguère.

Among the “flagship” projects, we note, for example, the creation of a two-way path on Bourret Avenue, in Côte-des-Neiges, which will become “the first safe crossing” by bicycle on Décarie Boulevard, north of Sherbrooke. The City estimates that hundreds of cyclists already use this busy axis on a daily basis.

In Montréal-Nord, four bike paths will be developed: on rue Prieur between avenues Oscar and Gariépy, on avenue Salk between boulevard Gouin and rue de Charleroi, on rue d’Amos between avenues Saint-Julien and Jean-Meunier, then on avenue des Récollets between boulevards Gouin and Industriel.

On avenue Bourbonnière, a bike path will be created between rue Notre-Dame and rue de Bellechasse, to connect the boroughs of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. In the south-west of the island, the rue de Verdun cycle path will be made safe with a physical median and platforms suitable for buses.

A new one-way path should also see the light of day by the fall on avenue Christophe-Colomb, on both sides of the street, between boulevards Rosemont and Gouin. “It’s a street on which parents have been extremely mobilized for a long time. They tell us that they are afraid,” said the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, in an interview with The Press in the month of February.

More REVs in sight

The Réseau express vélo (REV) is not left out either. Its section on boulevard Henri-Bourassa, between rue Pitfield and rue Félix-Leclerc, will be completed in the summer. It was supposed to be completed last year, but was postponed due to logistical issues with the builder.

Upgrade work will also take place on the REV Saint-Denis, which will now be connected to Cherrier, and on the REV Saint-Antoine/Viger, which will extend between Square Victoria and Saint-Urbain.

In total, the REV must be enriched with 10 new sections over the next five years, according to what the Plante administration had promised in 2022. In all, during this period, 200 kilometers of cycle paths will be will add to the Montreal network, in 17 of the 19 boroughs.

Vélo Québec, for its part, welcomes “the new territorial equity approach”. Its CEO, Jean-François Rheault, says he is “particularly looking forward to seeing the bike lanes come to fruition in Montréal-Nord, Parc-Extension or Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, in addition to structuring axes in more central neighbourhoods, where the supply no longer responds to the increased traffic”. “We hope to see certain emblematic projects come to fruition as early as 2024, such as the REV announced on Jean-Talon”, he maintains, however.

Five new axes for VSMPE

In Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, five new permanent cycle routes will also open this summer. A track will be located rue de Louvain, between rue D’Iberville and 17^e Avenue, another rue Legendre, between rue D’Iberville and 16^e Avenue, and another on 24^e and the 25^e Avenue, between rue Villeray and boulevard des Grandes-Prairies.

The latter will facilitate travel to the future station of the extension of the blue line of the metro, planned by 2029.

Rue Ball, between avenue Stuart and rue Durocher, will also see a bike path appear, as will avenue de l’Épée, between avenues Beaumont and Ogilvy. Note: rue Querbes will also have a new bike lane, between avenue Ogilvy and boulevard Crémazie.

“We really come to work on the issue of territorial equity,” says Borough Mayor Laurence Lavigne-Lalonde. In Parc-Extension and Saint-Michel, we have a very high population density, with several households without a vehicle and many children. You have to give them safe axes to move around efficiently, not just short stretches of tracks to the left and to the right. »

Montreal will also publish on Monday a new dynamic map of its online cycling network, with the aim of allowing daily users “to better plan their trips”.