Canada’s biggest urban park is coming into existence in the island’s Far West, bringing together Cap St‑Jacques, most of Île Bizard, and some other green spaces that have been bought and appended. Federal money may be coming to knit it all together.
Updates from June, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Another vehicle collided with the Guy Street overpass Wednesday, halting trains on three Exo lines while the overpass is inspected for damage. As I post, Exo twitter feeds are mentioning delays now but not a complete halt – Candiac, Vaudreuil-Hudson and St-Jérôme. No news yet on what kind of truck it was.
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Kate
The popularity of Bixi keeps growing, with more bikes and more stations and a search for a supplier of electric bikes to respond to demand.
I walked up Mount Royal Wednesday afternoon, perfect idyllic weather, runners and walkers and cyclists doing their thing – and a couple of people on powered scooters. Not electric mobility aid things, but real little scooters, wearing helmets and all. Is this legal on that path? It felt out of place, but then these guys also take the Lachine Canal path, which I thought wasn’t meant for powered vehicles either.
Faiz Imam
This is the information you are looking for:
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/e-scooters-are-coming-to-montreal-but-is-the-city-ready
The scooters have been a nightmare in other cities, and the city has been paying attention. They’ve put some rules in place that hopefully will manage them decently
Kate
Maybe I used the wrong word. These were not kiddy scooters with motors, but these things. The man in red swore at me when I took the picture, which made me even more certain he knew he shouldn’t be doing what he was doing:
EmilyG
You mean those things that look like bikes but are way too loud to be bikes?
Kate
No, see the photos. More like little motorbikes.
Spi
They have license plate holders but don’t have a plate, I’d venture a guess that not only aren’t they suppose to be there those should be registered and have plates from the SAAQ.
steph
If they don’t have mechanical pedals, they’re not allowed.
Also, all motorized skateboards aren’t allowed on any street, bike path or sidewalk.
Kevin
This is a big grey area only because police are not enforcing the law.
Electric bikes have pedals in case the motor fails, but those pedals can often be removed. Electric bikes have a top speed of 32 kmh.
The vehicles Kate has photographed are officially known in Quebec as electric mopeds and should be treated as low-speed motorcycles (ie a 50-cc scooter) including having a license plate. Top speed 70 kmh. You’re supposed to wear a motorcycle helmet.
Blork
Here’s the official info on these things and electric bikes:
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/electric-bike/Blork
As Kevin says, the problem is that the police are not enforcing the regulations. Over in Longueuil you see a lot of these on bike paths but they’re mostly ridden quite slowly by geriatric people. In Montreal we see all sorts of people riding these, both on the bike path and on the street. They really shouldn’t be on bike paths, but people love their self-entitlements, so off they go.
Joey
The electric bikes that Bixi piloted last summer were great. I took one from Mile-End to the Bell Centre – it made the stretch of Parc from Mt-Royal to the monument a literal breeze. Unlike the e-bikes described in this thread, which only have pedals as a failsafe, these bikes feature a motor that only kicks in if you’re pedalling.
Ian
I didn’t realize motorized skateboards were illegal – I see them all over the Plateau. I wonder if it’s simply that a lot of people don’t realize their scooter or skateboard or e-bike is technically illegal, especially since cops never enforce it and there is absolutely no public awareness around it. I mean really, most of the time the cops don’t enforce jaywalking or riding bikes on the sidewalk so it’s not like there’s any real incentive not to do whatever the hell you want.
dwgs
Those electric motorbike things scare the hell out of me on the bike paths because they make no sound and all of a sudden one will pass you doing close to 40 km/h. God help you if you pull out to pass another bike at the wrong time.
qatzelok
Sprawl inhabitants trashify all infrastructure. They need to be relocated into more hospitable living areas.
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Kate
Crescent Street will be closed Thursday evening for a basketball watching party.
Update: CBC news Thursday morning says both Peel and Crescent will be closed for this.
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Kate
The city is proposing a set of new housing laws making developers either include social housing or pay into a housing fund if they don’t. The Journal implies there are still too many loopholes.
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Kate
Forty years after the first jazz festival, two of its founders, Alain Simard and André Ménard, are retiring. The festival now belongs to Evenko, which is getting close to a monopoly on the bread and circuses in this town.
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Kate
Only in St-Léonard: Nicola Di Iorio, till this year MP for the riding of Saint-Léonard–Saint-Michel, is angry that the new candidate chosen by the federal Liberals is not an Italian. This is the man who wavered and waffled on whether he was going to quit politics, last year, and finally did. Adding an additional cultural twist is that the chosen candidate is Hassan Guillet, Muslim and onetime imam.
Spi
He’s no longer an imam and hasn’t been one since he announced his intention to seek the Liberal nomination.
Kate
Granted. I’m not sure what makes a person an imam, though. I thought it was a level of education as well as a role. But I’ll edit the post. Thanks.
Spi
From my understanding anyone can self-declare themselves as an Imam, it’s mostly seen as a community/faith leader and doesn’t require recognition from some higher or centralized Islamic authority or any formal training or education. In this context, it’s better understood as a voluntary position and mostly done as a service to the community not to be compared to a priest or rabbi which entails a life commitment to their religion (although some Imam’s fit that description as well).
It’s funny how Mr Guillet is mostly referred to as an Imam (mostly because of the impassioned speech he gave), something he’s only done in his retirement after a long career as a lawyer and engineer much of it with Bombardier.
Anyone would a deeper or a better understanding should feel free to correct me.
Kate
Wikipedia on Imam. The role depends on the specific branch of Islam, apparently.
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Kate
Now L’actualité has weekend traffic notes well ahead of time. Later, also from CTV.
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Kate
Verdun’s beach is now set to open on June 22, after a preliminary opening party on June 20.
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Kate
Radio-Canada has an audio excerpt asking whether there’s any logic to the STM’s bus numbering system and the expert says no – there are groupings like 400-numbers for express routes, but the rest, not so much.
This streetcar map from 1941 shows a few familiar routes – the 15, the 17 and the 55 are there – but most of the rest have since changed. The present system has evolved gradually over time, and nobody recorded why specific numbers were chosen. Oddly enough, Wikipedia has a complete list of routes including obsolete ones.
Charles
For the longest time at Honoré-Beaugrand station you had (among others) the 186, 187, and 189 going different places towards the East. A number of years ago they shuffled things around such that these buses switched numbers between themselves—pretty much the same routes, but the 187 became 189, 189 became 186, and 186 became 187.
There must have been a reason … besides screwing with us … but I don’t know what that is.
Blork
Ah, the 15, or as I call it, the ghost bus. If it existed, I would find it very handy because I work right on Ste-Catherine (at MacKay) and sometimes I want to zip over to University or whatnot and if the weather is bad or my legs are aching it would be a nice quick way to get there. (Yes, the Metro is not far on a map, but getting there, going underground, getting to the platform, then getting back out again can add thousands of steps, and it’s not worth it if you’re only going a few blocks.)
So the 15, which never came very frequently, used to stop at Ste-Catherine and Bishop. They removed that stop a few years ago. Now it stops on the west side of Guy and then it goes all the way to de la Montagne before it stops again, which is about 400 metres. That might as well be 400 kilometres because it essentially means I will never take it. It’s not worth waiting for a bus if it’s only a short hop, and I’m not going to backtrack all the way to the west side of Guy even if it’s supposed to be coming soon. In my perfect world I time it using the Transit app so that I walk out of the building and hey, there it is! But that ain’t ever going to happen. I only see it about once a month, and it’s never anywhere near me or a stop.
Faiz Imam 22:47 on 2019-06-13 Permalink
A lot of people worked very hard to make this happen, i’ve been paying attention to this issue for a decade, and I was pretty defeatist the entire way. It’s amazing that the entire area isnt’ all slated for suburban development. This is a win.
I really hope people go there and experience the space, especially when it’ll be easy to get to in a few years.
Really not sure why they are calling it an “urban” park though.
JaneyB 12:21 on 2019-06-14 Permalink
A good news story indeed. That area is a wonderful oasis. There is also night x-country skiing at Cap St-Jacques in…(some other season).
Kate 20:31 on 2019-06-14 Permalink
Faiz Imam, I suppose because it’s within the boundaries of Montreal, hence urban.