There are “not too many bike paths”
24Hres – to be fair, another QMI platform – has a piece Saturday countering the recent Journal piece against bike paths. Is there any truth in the claim that too much roadspace is devoted to bikes? Andrea Lubeck says no: the numbers date back to 2018 so may be a little different now, but at that time, only 1.3% of the city’s roads had bike paths, rising to 1.5% in Ville‑Marie.
The number may be closer to 2% now, with the REV installed on St‑Denis and elsewhere.
Lubeck goes on to point out that if anything is clogging the streets for drivers, it’s drivers themselves, with the number of cars – and their size – growing every year.
Kevin 11:46 on 2025-05-17 Permalink
My one beef: bike lanes have a spillover impact on nearby streets without driveways where people need renovations or repairs. The city really needs to speed up the process for approving parking permits, so that plumbers etc. can show up and park their trucks
DeWolf 11:50 on 2025-05-17 Permalink
The Journal article uses a rhetorical technique that has become increasingly common: lie, distort and exaggerate to make your case, because you know it takes more effort to disprove your falsities than it does to make them up in the first place. It’s a cynical way of wearing people down into accepting misinformation.
Misinformation also has the appeal of being inherently more memorable than reality. “Valérie Plante has spent $800 million on bike paths!” is a bald-faced lie, but it’s a lot catchier than “Actually, Plante has spent $70 million on bike paths over eight years, and $700 million on road reconstruction that includes rebuilding underground infrastructure, redesigning streets, planting trees, installing street furniture…”
Similarly, “bike paths occupy HALF of many streets” is an outright lie, but “actually, bike paths make up only 2% of overall road surface, and even on St-Denis, two-thirds of the street is still dedicated to cars” has the benefit of being true but boring to anyone inclined towards outrage.
Al 13:45 on 2025-05-17 Permalink
https://montreal.ca/en/how-to/get-daily-or-monthly-parking-sticker
Kevin 15:53 on 2025-05-17 Permalink
Upon reread, I note I left out a key word: “reserved”. The current timeline is about 10 business days for reserving a street parking space on a street that otherwise doesn’t require a vignette.
And while the initial upfront cost estimate can be several hundred dollars, that may be revised down to about $45 per day when the bill actually comes due.
Joey 10:20 on 2025-05-18 Permalink
Wait, there are contractors who don’t just double-park/park in vignette zones/park in alleys/park on sidewalks? Who *pay* to park??!? Also, I’m not sure I follow the link to bike lanes – the presence of bike lanes makes it harder for contractors to park on adjacent streets?
Ian 17:30 on 2025-05-18 Permalink
I got to wondering, seeing it everywhere, and yeah, if you buy a contractor’s hi-vis vest and hang it over the doorframe of your vehicle then shut the door in such a way as to have said vest be be visible from the outside, you don’t get tickets any more. Best 25 bucks I ever spent.