Montreal Gazette Editorial: Cycling safety should be a high priority

 Cycling safety should be a high priority

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Published on: April 22, 2015
Last Updated: April 22, 2015 2:37 PM EDT

The five-way intersection of Décarie and de Maisonneuve Blvds. is certainly a headscratcher.

It slopes, there is a train overpass, there are bike paths. Upper Lachine Rd. forks off at an odd angle. Add in pedestrians from the nearby Vendôme métro, the surrounding residential area and the McGill University Health Centre a few metres away and it is arguably one of the most treacherous crossroads in Montreal for anyone trying to navigate it on foot, aboard a vehicle and, especially, by bike. And things will only get more complicated once a short section of de Maisonneuve just west of the intersection is opened to two-way traffic.

To be fair, the intersection no doubt poses a serious design quandary for even the most ingenious engineers.

But this is a puzzle Montreal is going to have to get a lot better and a lot faster at solving, as cycling continues to grow in popularity as a mode of transit. The current state of affairs is symptomatic of a tendency of officials to pay lip service to the importance of two-wheeled transport, but then fail to address some of the most pressing problems, especially when it comes to safety.

Montreal has indeed made great strides in installing hundreds of kilometres of bike paths, like the arteries on de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Rachel St. It also has an ambitious plan to expand the network — but it is already far behind in implementing it. Existing routes have become victims of their own popularity. They are now so crowded that they displace many avid cyclists onto parallel streets where there is no protection. Worse, these long stretches dedicated to cycling often end abruptly, putting cyclists at risk. Two examples are the path on St-Urbain St. that ends at the bottom of a hill with little room for cyclists to turn onto President Kennedy Ave., or the dodgy design of a brand-new path on St-Laurent Blvd. from Mile End into Rosemont.

These intersections are tough to configure so that everyone is accommodated. But there seems to be a lack of willingness to find a safe, common-sense solution for cyclists, especially if that means added costs. The city also simply neglects to make room for cycling when it’s not convenient, like on the grand new Robert Bourassa Blvd. or the Rockland St. overpass.

Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough council is taking a wait-and-see approach to adjusting the flow of traffic at de Maisonneuve and Décarie. Officials want to see the impact of the opening of the new superhospital over the coming year. This is understandable. But the risk in waiting is that a bad accident occurs, one in which someone is badly injured, or even killed.

This has been the tragic case with other areas known to pose problems, such as the dark, narrow underpass on St-Denis St. where cyclist Mathilde Blais was crushed under the wheels of a transport truck last summer. Already this year, only a few weeks into the cycling season, Vélo Québec is sounding the alarm about a series of cycling accidents that have left one dead and two seriously injured.

No one should have to die before safe, adequate cycling infrastructure is pushed up the city’s priority list.

Montreal Underpasses, Cyclists and Pedestrians

Like many cities Montreal has its share of underpasses. The one pictured above gives motorists, cyclists and pedestrians safe access from one side to the other of a fairly busy rail line. The poor lighting and narrow passage, with no road shoulder for refuge make these underpasses dangerous for cyclists. Just last year a 33-year old woman was killed while biking through one.

Needless to say a solution was required. In an effort to keep cyclists out of harm's way, the city decided that they should share the sidewalk with pedestrians for the length of the underpass. That's a fine idea, but as the signage indicates the notion of having cyclists walk their bikes was almost an afterthought. Whenever cyclists and pedestrians share the same turf, unless the bike is being walked, it is dangerous - for both. I can assure you that, having passed this way countless times, I have yet to see a cyclist walking his or her bike through the dark tunnel, but have on several occasions had to dodge a bike.

Is it too much to ask cyclists to walk their bikes when on a dark sidewalk through an underpass?

Park Bike Lane

Google Earth Blue line = pedestrian walk. Red line = bike path

Just up the street from where I live is a lovely park. It's been there for ages, and has seen several make-overs and additions.

At one time, up until the early 1970s, a street ran right through the middle of two green spaces. The decision was made to block the road and have drivers circumnavigate the park. A temporary roadblock was installed, large signs a block away were erected to warn motorists that the street no longer ran through the park.

In my opinion these signs could not have been improved on, yet on an almost weekly basis someone would plow their car through the roadblock, shaking we locals from our beds. As one might assume, for the most part these incidents occurred in the wee hours of the morning and involved the consumption of alcohol by the driver. Eventually a permanent barrier was set in place, landscaping was done and the idea of reopening the street was forgotten. It was a wise decision.

Over time as bicycle traffic became heavier a long stretch of the street on either side of the park was lined with a dedicated bike lane.  Once again the issue of the park arose, as now cyclists wanted to continue on in a straight line, but this would require a path through the park where the road once was. And so the two bike lanes were connected via a path through the park.

Google Earth Red box = Entry to bike path. Blue box = Entry to pedestrian walk

This is when some problems arose. As the photos illustrate the pedestrian walk and bike path are not only parallel, but are very close to each other. Unfortunately there will always be some who for reasons known only to themselves will walk or jog on the bike path. But a more important concern in my opinion is those who inadvertently find themselves in the midst of bike traffic.

At first the strip of bike-dedicated lane that ran through the park was left unenclosed. Young children and older folks often walked onto the path unintentionally. The former did so not understanding the concept, while the latter group just could not grasp why anyone would be allowed to ride a bike through a park.  With time this has been reduced by placing hedges along the edge of the path, not only adding some greenery, but some safety as well (although in some places green snow fence is used, but that's still better than nothing).

Now the main problem with the configuration is cyclists ignoring the stop sign as they enter or exit the park, thereby crossing a sidewalk where, not surprisingly, pedestrians of all ages are to be found.