Sunday, October 31, 2010

Mont Royal's "demented" bike path closed down


The van is driving on the uphill-direction side of the "demented" bike path.
(photo La Presse)


The uphill-direction bike path has now been removed.


This van is traveling on the now-gone lane of this demented bike path.

The disaster-in-waiting that was the wrong-way bike-lane up the fast and busy downhill-diesction side of Remembrance road on Mont Royal that Velo-Quebec actually called "demented" has been changed into a downhill-direction-only one-way bike lane.

This puts a wrench into the gears of the plan to connect the new cote-de-neiges recreational path with the entrance to the park at Beaver Lake (Lac aux castors). On the other hand, it will probably save a few lives. The planned rebuilding of the Remembrance/Cote-de-Neiges intersection pictured in the last photo from an autoroute style high-speed overpass into a normal street-level intersection will provide the sane solution to cross this road where everyone speeds at a velocity vastly over the posted speed limit (our suggestion: since this road runs through a park, make the speed 30 km'h and start collecting the speeding fines).

For once the city acted fast once everyone realized a big mistake had been made. Now, about those other mistakes, like:
  • the top of this same road at Camelien Houde where the wide paved-shoulder has been replaced with a no-shoulder/anti-cyclist cement curb?
  • the anti-cyclist changes to Circuit Jacques Villeneuve race track in Parc Drapeau on Ile-Notre-Dame?
  • the premature ending of the Cote-Sainte-Catherine bike path at Villeneuve street and not continuing a mere two more blocks to Mont Royal avenue? Like the narrowing and removal of the open half-lane beside parked cars on the newly rebuilt and narrowed St-Laurent boulevard?
  • the premature seasonal closing of the Route Verte #1 bike path link from Montreal island to the south shore across Parc Drapeau?
  • the removal of the walk signal as integral part of the traffic light cycle along the Cote-Ste-Catherine bike path?
The list goes on, and on.

We still have a way to go before "bike-friendly" is considered an important road-safety design criteria at the Montreal Roads department.

1 Comments:

At 2:57 PM, Anonymous Cycling Coach said...

I ride on Mount Royal several times a week in the summer and I have to say I was very excited when I heard that the city was going to add a bike path on remembrance road. Imagine my surprise the first time I used the demented bike path and almost got taken out by a van load of tourists fro N.Y. I was very happy to see them fix the problem quickly. But I still applaud the city for A: trying to make the mountain bike friendly and B: Acting quickly to fix the problem fast. Now if they could remedy the issues with the circuit Gille Vileneuve.

 

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