Electrically assisted bicycles | Living together on crowded tracks

(Drummondville) The rise in popularity of electrically-assisted bicycles (VAE) creates new challenges for sharing bicycle paths and bicycle paths, argued a panel of experts at the most recent symposium organized by Vélo Québec.

Nicolas Berube
The Press

The province’s cycle paths have already been dedicated to cycling, but in recent years, a whole mobility ecosystem has been circulating there.

“There are bicycles, electric bikes, electric scooters, electric motorcycles, three-wheelers, four-wheelers, electric scooters, roller skates, Segways, skateboards, electric skateboards… It makes you wonder if the bike paths are still aptly named,” said Magali Bebronne, program director at Vélo Québec.

M^me Bebronne moderated a panel of experts on Wednesday on the subject of the challenges of cohabitation on Quebec’s bike paths and multi-function trails as part of the symposium Transforming our living environments through cyclingwhich brought together nearly 300 participants for two days in Drummondville.

The presence of all these users on a small stretch of road creates frustration, said M^me Bebronne. “More serious still, it can create a feeling of insecurity and prevent users from using these infrastructures. »

In February 2020, the federal government advised provinces to come up with their own definition of pedelecs that could be used to determine who can or cannot use bike lanes, she said. However, the Government of Quebec has still not established its definition, so that a regulatory vacuum has arisen.

The D^r Jean-François Joncas, orthopedic surgeon at the Sherbrooke University Hospital Center and outgoing president of the Quebec Orthopedic Association, notes that even if data on accidents involving pedelecs do not exist, the rise in their popularity, in particular during the COVID-19 lockdown, caused an increase in injuries.

The D^r Joncas believes that one of the ways to improve the portrait would be to enforce a speed limit on the cycle network. Also, training for electric bike users could be a solution.

At the same time, more and more workers see the electric bicycle as a solution to solo driving and the emission of greenhouse gases to go to work. In this regard, Équiterre and partners launched the Vélovolt pilot project, which provided electrically assisted bicycles for a month to employees in several locations in Quebec to use to go to work, said Marilène Bergeron, mobility program manager at Équiterre.

“There are 36% of workers in Quebec who live less than five kilometers from their place of work. However, 78% of trips to work are made by car. So there is great potential for promoting active mobility,” she said.

Perceptual issues

Marie-Soleil Cloutier, a professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS) and director of the Center Urbanization Culture Société, said she often heard harsh words against cyclists when she did focus groups with groups of pedestrians. , especially seniors.

“Cyclists really don’t have a good reputation, I’m really sorry if I tell you that today,” she said.

However, after carrying out several observation projects in Montreal and Vancouver, where 4,000 pedestrians were observed crossing the street, she and her team realized that in approximately 15% of cases, a cyclist was less than two meters from the person crossing.

“So 15%, in the end, it’s not that much,” she says.

For the past two years, Marie-Soleil Cloutier and her team have also analyzed the interactions between pedestrians and cyclists in pedestrianized areas such as Mont-Royal Avenue during the summer. In these observations, 30% of cyclists passed close to a pedestrian. “But most of the time, they drive in a straight line, quietly, as the signage requires. And it is often the cyclist who settles a little when there is a pedestrian. »

Results that reassure on the policy of respectful cohabitation on pedestrianized spaces, she says. “But hey, it sure takes just one that’s going too fast to be heard on the news.” But, in general, the cohabitation went well. »