I don’t buy a lot of bike paths, but that seems like a pretty good deal.
Congrats Montreal! So far you can’t go wrong with more bike paths, but I guess that’s easy to say for a Calgarian.
There is a little bit of controversy around the bike paths in Montreal, because car users complain that they don’t do enough for them. The city is crippled with many road repairs and projects that moving through the city a pain in the ass. Anyway, it’s obvious that Projet Montreal doesn’t care about car users.
Calgary and perhaps all cities have the same discourse. The car only people get upset when bike paths or BRTs are made.
Given there are lots of roads here that are inaccessible by bike, transit or walking having no shoulders or sidewalks, I’m always happy when another option is added.
I definitely don’t think of Montreal as a driving city but consider that a part of the appeal when visiting.
I bike, walk and drive and am generally happy when all infrastructure is updated.
It’s a silly argument, too.
Bikes take up way less space than cars. The more bike infrastructure there is, the more cyclists there are, the fewer cars there are in the roads, the less traffic there is.
Drivers benefit from bicycle infrastructure. Everyone benefits from bicycle infrastructure. The more cars we can displace from roads, the better it is for literally everyone. (Aside from those selling cars, gas, and related industries, I suppose.)
Anyway, it’s obvious that Projet Montreal doesn’t care about car users.
As someone who drives Hochelaga-Senneville and back daily: GOOD.
For the great majority of people driving around Montreal is unnecessary and cumbersome. Making roads more accessible and safe to cyclists is only logical and frees up space for the rest of us who must drive.
For the record and in the spirit of full disclosure, if I can get somewhere by bike in less than an hour I do and I used to do it daily for work.
The city is crippled with many road repairs
obvious that Projet Montreal doesn’t care about car users.
Repairing roads is not caring about car users?
Good
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The projects are part of the Valérie Plante administration’s Vision Vélo 2023-2027 unveiled last fall, which includes adding a total of 200 kilometres of bike paths, including 10 new sections of the Réseau Express Vélo (REV), a network of high-capacity bike lanes around the city.
Many bike paths will be fixed up, including the Saint-Denis Street portion of the REV in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough.
New one-way lanes will be set up on Christophe-Colomb Avenue, an undertaking that will take two years to complete, though the city says a first part will be accessible this fall.
There are also plans to develop a new bike path on rue de la Commune Ouest, in the Old Port, to complete the cycling network in this heavily travelled area.
A bike path on Bourbonnière Avenue connecting the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve boroughs and a two-way crossing on Décarie Boulevard are also among the city’s projects.
The city is urging Montrealers to check out its interactive map of the complete cycling network to better plan their travels.
The original article contains 304 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 45%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
How much does 60km of two lane road cost for comparison? I would think building a bike path would end up being cheaper.
Way more. I’m working on a road project now. Asphalt for a road (100mm thick) is being bid at approximately $35/sq.m. Granular are about an extra $30/sq.m.
For a standard residential size road (8.5m curb to curb) that puts you at $552/m of road length, or 33mil. The big costs on top of that number always come when you’ve got to remove the old asphalt and gravel ($75/cu.m), as well as all the fiddly little stuff like line painting, tying in grades to make sure you have drainage, sod restoration, tree plantings, etc.
$1-3m / km. So 60 km of 2 lane road would cost $60-180 million. Probably on the higher end for Montréal being an urban area.
But roads can cost as over $5Bn for 1.7km (looking at you Gardener Expressway). So $2,941 million /km for however many lanes that is.
These bike lane in particular are probably more expensive than brand new lanes, as they also require road adjustments.
