The City of Quebec aims to become a four-season cycling city on a par with Malmö, in Sweden, or Montreal, at the other end of the 20. In its vision of active mobility presented on Tuesday, the national capital dreams of in a cycling paradise where cycling and walking will become as natural as the car for getting around.
Over the next five years, Quebec wants to add 120 km to its cycling network. From 2024, a first City Bike corridor, inspired by the Réseau Express Vélo (REV) set up in Montreal, will see the light of day between Charlesbourg and the city center. Two others will follow in 2025 and 2026, first in the Vanier-Lebourgneuf-Saint-Émile axis, then in Beauport.
The location of the corridors remains undetermined and will be the subject of public consultation. The City already knows that they will be cleared of snow in winter, lit at night, wide enough for cycling to be safe and separated from automobile traffic lanes.
From 2024, the administration of Mayor Bruno Marchand wants to invest $36 per inhabitant in active mobility – double the amount granted this year. By 2027, Québec will deploy a cycling network totaling 500 km on its territory, of which 165 km will be accessible even in winter.
Implementing this vision will cost $95 million. In the City’s financial planning, the Government of Quebec must pay 50 million, or more than half. For Mayor Marchand, this is first and foremost a public health effort that no government can contest.
“Can we refuse a city where people are healthier? […] To say no to that is to condemn yourself to manage the disease. We want to manage health, ”says the mayor.
Currently, more than 90% of trips of less than 5 km are made by motorized vehicle in Québec. Some 183,000 trips during the week are made by active transportation. The City sees the potential to increase this number to 268,000.
The Marchand administration assures that “the goal is not to remove lanes for cars”. The mayor maintains that it is still too early to determine whether the upcoming cycling network will eat into the one currently dedicated to motorists. He adds that “wherever it’s been done in the world”, no one expresses regret.
“We don’t need to look very far: look at Montreal, illustrates Bruno Marchand. There is no longer anyone in Saint-Denis who would go back. [Le REV] demonstrated that the use of a dedicated bicycle space in the city center can increase traffic in businesses. »
His administration also promises to improve the infrastructure for parking bicycles. The idea, as Pierre-Luc Lachance, vice-president of the executive committee responsible for active mobility, points out, is “that cyclists, once they arrive at their destination, not only have a small rack with two bolts wrong typed on the edge. »
Finally, the City evokes the construction of escalators to compensate for the steep relief of the capital and signage that leaves more time for pedestrians to cross the streets.
Mobility in Québec is about to undergo a major transformation over the next few years. The tramway should start in 2028 while the Vélo Cité cycling network should be completed by 2027. The unknown data remains the third link, which could add four road lanes between downtown Québec and Lévis. This last project, according to the government of François Legault, should make it possible to unclog the Quebec and Pierre-Laporte bridges, in addition to promoting the use of public transport between the two shores.