Covid Streets of Montreal

A.T. Lane and Karolina Kocięcka met early, at the Shaika Cafe, so as to avoid the midday heat.  They discussed how the Covid crisis had in some places changed Montreal streets for the better and in other places they had not changed at all.

An example of of a street that had changed very little was Sherbrooke Street, where the Shaika Cafe is located.  Despite the fact that it is one one the most  needed bicycle paths in the city, the main change in this section of the street during the Covid crisis has been to repaint divided median that had worn away over the winter.  This line painting forces moving cars towards bicycles riding between the moving vehicles and the parked cars to the right.  The design was widely criticized by cycling advocates when it was first installed last year. However the NDG city council claims that because of the Covid situation they have been too busy to implement a better solution that makes uses a combined bus lane / bicycle path.  So we are back to the old system here.

After A.T. had his coffee, the two headed up hill to investigate the recent cycling death on Forden Crescent.

    First we went up Girouard, along a painted line bike path to NDG Avenue and then turned right to head towards Westmount Avenue.   Both NDG and Westmount Avenues have had painted line bicycle paths for a quite some time.  However, for most of this period, there was a bicycle path gap between Girouard and Claremont that took years of lobbying in order to fill.  Looking at this previous gap section today, it seems as if the path was always there, and we wondered is why it took so long, and was so difficult to accomplish.

NDG Avenue 5 April 2019, a sign proclaiming an upcoming path to fill the gap.  It was actually not filled until late in the fall of that year.

Upon reaching Westmount Avenue we noticed construction cones forming a new social distancing corridor, on the north side of the street, in addition to the eastbound only, bicycle path on the south side that has long been there. This new corridor was added due to the Covid crisis. Westbound cyclists on this street now have the option of choosing to ride in the social distancing corridor or with the cars in the main section of the street.  No indication is given as to which method is permitted or not. 

  Passing Lansdowne avenue we laughed at the construction cones that were added during Covid.  I am not sure what purpose they are supposed to serve.  Rather than making the street safer, they force cyclists to weave in and out of the bicycle path and into the car lane.

At the south end of Forden Crescent, where it meets Forden Avenue we came to the under reported first cycling death on the the island of Montreal in over a year.  The family of the victim has made a memorial to him at the site of the crash.

   Apparently the victim was a graduate student at McGill from Germany living in NDG. He apparently crashed while traveling downhill (southbound) into a northbound car entering Forden Crescent for Forden Avenue while on his way to McGill.  After the crash his parents came to Canada, despite the Covid restrictions, to be with him.  He died several days later, mysteriously there has been nothing mentioned about this in the news despite that fact that this is the first death of a cyclist on the island of Montreal in over a year.

   Although marked as a south bound one way street on Google Maps, Forden Crescent is in fact a 2 way street.  However its design as a narrow two way street is flawed.  Permitting Northbound cars to veer left on to the crescent despite the poor visibility caused by parked cars and the changing slope of the hill should not be allowed.  The tragic death of this cyclist is the result of many years of ignoring this road design flaw.

When the crash was reported in the Montreal Gazette, the reporter stated the victim was not wearing a helmet and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries but his life was not considered to be in danger.  It was also stated that the car diver may have been blinded by sunlight when the collision  occurred.  I am not aware of any news reports of the death that occurred in hospital several days later.  The reporting by the Gazette on this crash seems to be a classic case of blaming the victim rather than trying to understand the reasons for the tragedy.

Northbound view of  Forden Cresent entrance (to the left) can be obscured by parked cars and the changing hill slope into a narrow passage.  Cars speed up the curved streets and cyclists can be moving fast downhill.   This street entrance has long been an accident waiting to happen.

At the bottom of Forden Avenue we came to Cote St Antoine.  The route we were taking (as well as the crash victim) is to go along Westmount Ave to Forden and then turn left on Cote St Antoine. It is one of the most direct ways to cycle from NDG's Monkland village to downtown Montreal and will always have some bicycle traffic using this route.  There are bicycle paths the entire way except for the long standing connection gap between eastbound only Westmount Avenue path / Westbound only Cote St Antoine path and the busy de Maisonneuve path. 

Westbound only Cote St Antoine bicycle path begins at the corner of Forden

Connection gap between de Maisonneuve  and Cote Ste Antoine bicycle paths.  Presumably the victim intended to ride directly eastwards downtown to McGill via this road.  No provision for east bound cyclists to use this direct route is planned by the city. Nor are there plans to build a cycling path on Sherbrooke street which would connect directly to the McGill campus.

The absence of planning for bicycles to travel in both directions in this area of Westmount is a major road  design error.  It leads to the reputation that cyclists are unlawful criminals who ignore traffic laws,. When in fact they are ordinary citizens who are simply trying to take a less strenuous direct route to their destination.

Painted sidewalk in front of Westmount City Hall for westbound cyclists only. This is an attempt to a fill part of the connection gap between the older, highly used de Maisonneuve  path and the newer Westmount Ave and Cote St Antoine paths.  Again the victim would have planned to use this sidewalk in the eastbound direction to  get to McGill from NDG.

Green test paint for the unfinished westbound only connection between the two paths.  Westmount has long been requested to add green paint within intersections to show to cars they are crossing bicycle paths.  This was added on two intersections as a paint test last year.  Although common in many suburban areas around the city, this type of painting within intersections is rare on the island of Montreal even in high risk areas such as the Vendome danger zone.

We then rode along the de Maisonneuve path (green paint absent at intersection crossings) for a few blocks.  This street has had a remarkable decline in car traffic due to it's closure due to construction at the Atwater Metro.  During the Covid crisis it has become a walking / cycling paradise between Atwater and Westmount Park.  Hopefully when the Atwater Metro construction finishes the street will never re-open for cars.

De Maisonneuve near the construction site at Atwater Metro.  This short portion of the street east of Wood Ave was of the street was changed to a two way street to allow car access to Alexis Nihon's second indoor parking garage.  It is doubtful that this second parking lot entrance is required at all.

Next we rode down Chomedey Street, pausing to chat with the neighbor of the Montreal Bicycle Club's founding house on 2 Dec, 1878.

Ste Catherine street's northern half is now closed to car traffic as a result of the Covid crisis.  It now is an attractive cycling alternative to the heavily used de
Maisonneuve downtown path.

In some areas of Ste Catherine street there are signs that show riding bicycles in this new social distancing zone is not permitted. This can lead to cyclists being at risk riding on the south side of the street with cars rather than safely behaving in a polite way with pedestrians.

We then went down the new REV path on Guy (presently all broken up due to construction) to the Lachine bike path.  One of the best paths in the city, Parks Canada does not allow salt to be used upon it, and as a result this safe route cannot be used by cyclists in the winter.

We came at last to the first big street change caused by Covid,  the pedestrian only section of Wellington.  This section begins where Lasalle boulevard crosses Wellington and extends westwards a long distance from that point.

The street is much improved and is now a pleasant outdoor terrace location for restaurants.   I suggest we use it as a lunch stop for some of our future Fixture rides.  Some of the opposition to a new bike path on arterial streets such as Sherbrooke comes from the fear that if car access to the street is reduced people will not shop there.  To counter this argument cyclists, and anyone else who desires a more environmentally friendly  city, should shop only on the streets that have safe cycling infrastructure.  They can then tell the owners of stores on streets that are unsafe that they are avoiding shopping in their stores for that reason.  A Fixture ride that begins on Sherbrooke and ends with lunch on Wellington would be a good demonstration of that.

Wellington Street forms the northern limit of what was the Queens Park Velodrome, site of the 1899 win of the 1 mile sprint by Major Taylor, the first black American to become a world champion in any sport.  We took a ride around the unmarked former Queens Park Velodrome.

Depanneur at the south west corner of Queens Park (corner of 1st Ave and Lasalle).  This was the location of the velodromes club house and main entrance way.

  Major Taylor was the world's top paid, most famous athlete, in his time.  Despite of being barred from joining the League of American Wheelmen because of his skin color, he represented the USA here in Montreal where he won the cycling  world championship before embarking on tours of Europe and Australia.  After the cycling craze of the 1890s ended he was forgotten, dying penniless and sent to an unmarked pauper's grave in Chicago.  Recently he has been a surge in interest in his life with new biographies being written about him.  There is even an cycling Association of Major Taylor.

  In addition to renaming the Lionel Groulx Metro Station the Oscar Peterson Station.  The city should take this moment of Black Lives Matter to add an historical plaque to the former Queens Park in Verdun indicating the significance of the site to both cycling and Black history.

From here we cycled east along Wellington on what is the direct route between Old Montreal and the new Champlain Bridge all season Bicycle path connecting the Island of Montreal and the South Shore.  This eastern portion of Wellington presently has a dangerous underpass for cyclists and is poorly marked.  Someday it could become the one of the prime tourist cycling routes of the city as visitors cycle between these Old Montreal and the mainland.

Returning to the Lachine Canal path, we passed a much criticized bridge for the new REM built next to a historic swing bridge.

Reaching Old Montreal, we took a few photos of the historical marker of the first parliament buildings of Canada.  These building markers are new this year.

  Unlike Vienna, and many other bicycle friendly cities in Europe, the historic old portion of Montreal has not been pedestrianized remains fully open to car traffic.  It could be one of the top  city attractions for eco friendly tourism in North America and yet the belief continues that without cars no business.

Notre Dame street approaching the cathedral. A regular car filled street.

St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna, Sept 2019, a pedestrianized street full of tourists

We then rode north along the Berri bicycle path.  Here we saw evidence that contrary to some arguments I have heard from city officials, wheelchair and bicycle traffic can happily co-exist. 

Also on Berri we noticed the Covid era widening of the bicycle path. 

The dangerous former bi-directional path which had high speed downhill riders squeezed between uphill riders and a wall has been widened. I hope it remains like this after Covid.

The busy bi-directional path on Cherrier now is two unidirectional paths.    This was put in during Covid.

Similarly, Avenue du Parc la Fontaine the single bi-directional path is now two uni-directional paths.

Mont Royal Avenue is a Covid era fully pedestrianized street like Wellington. 

We rode along Mont Royal Avenue for a few blocks but were informed that there is a $200 fine for doing so.  Because to the danger of running  into pedestrians we rode North along St Denis instead.

Dangerous riding conditions on Mont Royal Avenue

Safe riding conditions on St Denis

We returned via the McGill campus.  For many years bicycles were barred from riding on this campus but recently this policy has changed and bicycles and pedestrians now share the space.  I saw for the first time a street sign that describes this reasonable situation.  It could be used in many places in Covid Montreal.