Montreal bike-path audits find no safety reason to remove four paths

Technical audits of four Montreal bike paths have found no reason to dismantle them based on safety concerns, the City of Montreal announced on Wednesday, October 28.

The four paths audited

City engineers reviewed paths in four boroughs: Rachel Street in Plateau-Mont-Royal, Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road in Outremont, de la Commune Street in Ville-Marie and Meilleur Street in Ahuntsic-Cartierville. The audits were ordered by Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada's administration, following through on a promise she made during last year's mayoral campaign.

Cohabitation, not safety

Alan DeSousa, the executive committee member responsible for mobility and infrastructure, said that "at first glance," the concerns are not about safety "but rather of cohabitation." He cautioned, however, that it is premature to call the preliminary report accurate: the city is still compiling citizen-survey data, which will be used to validate or invalidate the technical audits.

What happens next

Once the technical review is paired with the community survey results, the city will put together a final report and release it to the public, and the future of each bike path will be decided from that report. Vélo Québec CEO Jean-François Rheault welcomed the preliminary finding but said he was not surprised. Projet Montréal interim leader Ericka Alneus was more critical, saying the process cost $1,000,000 "just to reaffirm that the City of Montreal has great engineers." The preliminary report came two weeks after Ontario began dismantling 19 km of bike lanes in downtown Toronto, a move that drew criticism from Mayor Olivia Chow and protests from residents.