Rant on bike lanes from Reddit
Without permission I’m putting here a rant from a user called 5Aki1 on reddit’s /r/montreal as a comment on the Park Ex bike path squabble:
Today, parc ex residents against the new bike lanes gathered to protest the new protected bike lanes and the parking they lost because of them.
Let’s go over something.
Parc ex is tiny and very very very dense. It is also trapped within physical borders on each of its sides. It’s very tight and its very tiny with limited exit options. There are a lot of cars in parc ex. Most residents of parc ex do not use cars, but the borough is so dense that the ones that do create a space problem. The cars just don’t fit. I’m serious. Come to parc ex after 8 on a weekday and try to find parking on one of the smaller streets. It’s really hard and you have to get pretty lucky. If not, you might end up as on of the poor suckers parked on the southbound side of Acadie, having to move the car at 7 am the next day. I empathize. I used to do it all the time. Its rough.
I grew up in parc ex and this has been an issue literally forever. Alternate forms of transportation are just okay. There are a few pretty good buses, but your access to rail is pretty limited. As for alternate forms of transportation, parc ex was awful. Awful enough that if public transportation wasn’t good enough, you had to drive… Unless, of course, you were too poor to drive (which was quite a few people considering parc ex is historically one of the poorest boroughs in Canada… go figure) /s.
A while ago, they painted a few bike lanes on certain streets, but they were laughably bad. Seriously, I challenge you to bike down Querbes in the old bike lanes without having something bad happen to you. You might have a better chance finding parking after 8. Honestly, it wasn’t a serious attempt at being equitable, it was something they did to check a box.
Personally, I have been commuting by bike for years and have been saying that the worst part of my commute has been my route leaving park ex. Now, I (as well as others) finally have a safe commuting route, but the people who lost their parking are upset. I get it. I really do. But these people are being ridiculous. I was there and I heard their counter arguments. Here is what I have to say:
- Parc ex has always had a parking problem. Adding parking doesn’t help. What helps is giving people options. If people take those options (I am living proof of that), you have less cars on the road and less parked cars, which means you could park YOUR car! If we removed the new protected lanes, we would still have the same problem.
- At the protest, there were many people with signs promoting equity. Signs like “Let’s do both!” and “Bikes and parking!”. This is at best stupid and at worst completely disingenuous. It is laughable to even suggest that the issue is that it’s not fair to the cars. Let’s be clear, it has only ever been fair to cars. These protected bike lanes are equity. This is a stupid argument and having to explain this is stupid.
- I thought it was common knowledge that the city doesn’t owe you public parking??? Just because you own a car, it doesn’t mean you are owed a spot for it! Thats why private parking is a thing. Just to reiterate, the parking spot in front of your house is not yours.
Ultimately, what this boils down to is that the people at these protests do not actually care about equity, making the streets safe, or anything of the sort. They are just being selfish because they lost what was convenient to them. Unfortunately, progress isn’t always convenient.
This isn’t rocket science. Get over yourselves. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
Also, one person came on the mic and told us to “go to westmount” or “the plateau is that way”. That’s fucked up bro. It matched the energy you tried to convey when you tried to equate your struggle of losing a parking spot to ‘I have a dream’ 🤡
Edit: I’m not sure why people feel the need to mention that some cyclists do not obey traffic laws. I mean sure, some cyclists can do better, just like how some drivers and pedestrians can, but that’s not what this post is about…
walkerp 12:37 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Well said. Thank you for sharing that.
DeWolf 15:02 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
In the same thread somebody noted that the 80 was late because Bloomfield was blocked by “five shiny new SUVs” that were double-parked. But yeah, the real problem is bike paths and the awful elitist gentrifiers who use them.
It’s always good to remember that, according to the latest available data (which unfortunately is from 2016 – still waiting for someone to crunch the 2021 census numbers) only 42% of Park Ex residents commute to work by car. The rest get around by public transit, walking and cycling. And yet it’s the drivers who take up all the space and block the roads.
DeWolf 15:04 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Actually, the 42% figure is for the whole VSP borough. I imagine the rate of car commuters is even lower in Park Ex than the borough average.
walkerp 16:29 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
One important factor is that the city really needs to improve public transit to that neighbourhood. Better bus and train access would allow people to give up their cars more easily.
Ian 17:20 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Like walkerp says. Getting to the light industrial part of vsl by bus is about 45 minutes. It’s also a tough bike ride as there’s tons of trucks and vans, and Acadie in the way. It’s faster to walk from Querbes and J-T to say, Andalos than to take the bus.
That said I find it comical how you’re all lauding this person’s rant instead of calling it “anecdotal” and “irrelevant”. Confirmation bias much?
Chris 17:59 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Great rant! A man after my own heart.
>Adding parking doesn’t help.
So many people don’t get this. We’ve been adding roads and highways and parking for a century, and what does it do? It encourages people to use cars. If you build it, they will come. (This is of course intentional.)
>only 42% of Park Ex residents commute to work by car
So that’s a floor on car ownership. One might still own a car but not commute to work with it. And of course many more *aspire* to own a car, but are stuck with public transit. They too may prefer to keep more parking, because any day now they’ll be rich enough to have a car too.
And this aspiration aspect applies to immigrants especially: https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/uncomfortable-facts-about-biking-and-minorities/316886/
Ian 18:05 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
There is indeed a vaguely racist and paternalistic element at play, with immigrants “not fitting in”.
Of course the whole PM weltanschauung is essentially culturally elitist and largely based on communal “othering” of the non-elites, so that tracks.
DeWolf 20:15 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
And yet most of the people riding bikes around Park Ex are also racialized, working-class people. Just go there and see.
The problem is that the car owners get the entire cake and everybody else gets the crumb. Redistributing space is the very definition of equity.
Ian 20:39 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
I actually spend a lot of time in Parc Ex top to bottom and the thing is there’s actually not a lot of cyclists compared to Mile End Or even the new Outremont campus. It could be a chicken and egg thing but I’m not seeing many cyclists north of J-T in any capacity.
Kate 21:13 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Plenty of cyclists on the REV on St-Denis up here, Ian, north of J‑T and south of the 40.
The Lajeunesse bike path is also popular.
Ian 21:31 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
Sure, but that’s not Parc Ex. I’m on Querbes often and the bike path north of J-T is usually empty but for some asshole in a car using it as a turning lane.
walkerp 23:21 on 2023-10-04 Permalink
I don’t know the demographics but judging by the protestors, I suspect most of the car extremists who are freaking out right now in Parc Ex are the older generation, such as the Greek immigrants who came over in the 70s. A lot of the resistance is just fear of change. Look at how much better the other areas that have had traffic calming and bike paths put in both look and are performing economically.
Nicholas 04:49 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
While I agree with most of what’s in the rant, I wouldn’t say access to rail is pretty limited. The farthest anyone would have to walk to a metro station is about 2 km. (There’s also a train station with, admittedly, terrible frequencies, which is par for the course for Exo.) The fairly decent bus network works well itself, but also is good at getting people who have to walk far to a metro to the metro much quicker: not just down Acadie and Bloomfield/Champagneur, but also along Jarry and Jean Talon to the Orange Line. And the walk to the nearest bus is only a few blocks maximum. All that puts Park Ex at one of the better neighbourhoods in the city.
Also, biking to rail transit is a winning combination, reducing that 30 minute max walk to an 8-minute max bike ride. Which will be much better with the new bike lanes.
Joey 09:01 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
Sometimes I wonder if there’s something about the fans of Projet’s approach to politics that makes them love having this fight over and over and over again. Yes, there will always be resistance, but we need a large-scale city policy that says that all Montreal streets, eventually, should be re-arranged to safely and appropriately accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. Make it a matter of the city’s political and administrative culture that *every* road that gets civic attention will no longer be ‘just for cars.’
Chris 09:06 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
>I’m on Querbes often and the bike path north of J-T is usually empty but for some asshole in a car using it as a turning lane.
Perhaps there’s a causal relationship there? 🙂 Maybe they could make the bike path safer by widening it by removing a lane of parking? And/or maybe moving the bikes to between the sidewalk and the parked cars?
Mr.Chinaski 09:26 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
When everybody had the same type of sign (same type of lettering, same colors), you know there is some entity behind all of this. Pathetic.
Kate 10:03 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
Mr.Chinaski, that’s a very smart observation. I smell Ensemble.
Joey 10:30 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
@Mr. Chinaski isn’t it fairly common for relatively few people in a protest movement to do the rote work, i.e., making signs for others to carry? That’s been my experience…
walkerp 11:01 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
@Joey, I don’t think most people are fans of their approach as much as that they share similar values and goals. I do agree with some of the critiques of the way they have handled comms and consultation around some projects. Almost everybody agrees the softball field elimination was a travesty.
But I want cars off the streets and a liveable planet and given that the vast majority of North America is dominated by car extremists, every little project that moves towards that goal, even if it doesn’t exactly match my priorities is worth supporting.
And though PM has a decent power base, no municipal government is ever truly in a position of strength, especially in Quebec, so I give them some leeway in their approach given how many powerful forces against which they are fighting. And this is also why supposed progressives who constantly attack PM are so damaging to the overall cause in the fight against climate change.
Kevin 13:21 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
Nicholas
Two kilometres is an impossible distance to walk for many people.
Orr 17:17 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
People who hate seeing anyone experience freedom & joy on a bike and wants to stop cyclists enjoying freedom and joy on their bike should get a therapist, get a bike, learn what good things happen on two wheels. That is, of course when not having their lives put at risk almost every minute by dangerous car drivers.
Ian 18:27 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
Tell it to my 74 year old Dad who can’t even walk a kilometre wihtout needing to sit down for a while. You’re an elitist, and you want the city to build infrastructure to support your hobby, everyone else be damned.
That said, the situation on Querbes is very different in that this is not sport infrastructure – I do support the bike path, I just don’t like how PM is pushing it through. As I’ve said before, even if you support their goal in any instance it’s strictly coincidental as they feel that they are above even public consultations let alone reponsiveness to citizen concerns. Look at the cop funding, for example – despite the proimise (before the election of course) of a big, big conversation about defunding – and instead the fnding was dramatically increased. Getting elected doesn’t mean carte blanche to do whatever they want. Is there anyone here that is against bike paths in principle? I doubt that.
There’s a good chance PM will alienate the electorate in Parc Ex the same as they did in Outremont, by being paternalistic & holier-than-thou liars.
Kevin 21:26 on 2023-10-05 Permalink
Orr
I prefer life on 2 wheels.
I also know that at a certain point I will need a wheelchair to get from my bed to the toilet.
Projet Montreal pretends that people with limited mobility don’t exist, as demonstrated by having a sketch where a man with a cane is walking down Camillien Houde.