We will see a first example of a designated bike way this summer on DeMaisonneuve between Decarie and Claremont in front of the Vendome metro that has been a missing link for decades. Expect more bicycle pictograms and a white line painted on the roadway. Whether they will render the dangerous Decarie/DeMaisonneuve trench intersection safer for frustrated cyclists remains to be seen.
In later years they will do the same line and pictogram painting on a number of streets in NDG: Terrebonne and Fielding goind east-west, and Girouard, Grand, Cavendish and West Broadway going north-south.
Cavendish is a particularly striking example of a situation where painted lines will offer little safety to cyclists: very busy and barely wide enough for the two lanes of cars rushing in each direction right now, we are asked to believe that cyclists will be safe on the outside of the parked cars in a narrow band vulnerable to opening car doors.
We suggest another solution in this area: use wide one way Walkley street, with its dense population of tenants, many without cars. A full two way bicycle path could be inexpensisvely inserted on the east side of the street against the sidewalk and separated by poles from the row of parked cars. No resident parking would be lost and speeding would be discouraged on Walkley by its narrowing.
The borough offers the same model in CDN, with designated bikeways recommended for busy Lacombe and Edouard Montpetit near St-Mary's hospital and the U de M. We would suggest a full bike path on quieter Jean Brillant. The one quiet and park intersected street they did pick in CDN, Lemieux (parallel to and just west of Victoria), unfortunately faces opposition from seniors' residences nearby.
As for Snowdon, they chose Clanranald and Earnscliffe each one way, but again we feel that painted lines alone is not enough. We suggest Clanranald as wide enough for a two way path on the east side against the sidewalk and separated from the row of parked cars by poles.
At the north end of Snowdon, our suggested new pedestrian/cyclist tunnel under the CP tracks to the soon to be developped Blue Bonnets area (from which a cyclist can easily reach Ville St-Laurent and its jobs) was rejected as too expensive. Instead, cyclists will have to jig east across the Decarie expressway to Victoria to get under the tracks, and are offered no way of getting across the 40 to VSL.
Finally, the expected cost breakdown of their plan:
- 45Km of painted designated bike way at $10,000/km (light signals included) = $450,000
- 2000 new bike parking spots (racks at metro stations and on streets) at approximately $100/spot = $200,000
- 3 kms of new path within 7 years along CDN road and Remembrance over the mountain at $250,000\km = $750,000 Here's hoping they use some of the remaining $1 million to repave the DeMaisonneuve path and install ramps on the Melrose tunnel.
<@Rb>Peter McQueen
Cym Gomery
CDN-NDG cyclists<@$p>
CDN-NDG families want safe bike paths, not just painted lines on busy streets
The borough of CDN-NDG unveiled its long awaited bicycle plan last night, a $2.45 million network of designated bike ways to be created over the next 7 years. Sadly, it includes few new bike paths seperated from car traffic like the one on DeMaisonneuve. Instead it promises to protect our growing number of young and beginner cyclists with only paint on the roadway on the outside of parked cars, and bike signals at traffic lights.
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