Calls for REV-like bike path in Montreal's west end
A group of cycling advocates are calling for an express corridor connecting Saint-Laurent to downtown Montreal.
The idea is to create something similar to the REV express bike path that runs along St. Denis Street.
Cyclists like Olivier Labreche, who commutes from his home in Saint-Laurent to his job downtown, say the current commute isn't safe.
"When we look at the infrastructure in the west end of the city, we see it's really not on par with what people have in the centre and more towards the east," Labreche told CTV News. "Particularly for the north-south route, there's no continuous corridor to come between, let's say, N.D.G. and Ville Saint-Laurent."
Labreche is the spokesperson for the Association pour la mobilité active de Saint-Laurent (AMASL), one of several active transit groups that wrote a letter to the city calling for a new protected express bike path that is maintained year-round.
They suggest the route extend from Gouin Boulevard to the De Maisonneuve bike path, connecting Cartierville, Saint-Laurent, the Town of Mount Royal and N.D.G.
A proposed express bike lane in Montreal. (Coalition mobilite active Montreal)
"It's not just cars that should be allowed to have straight routes; pedestrians and cyclists should be able to move as straight as possible when they commute," said Labreche, noting that the proposed route is also close to Metro stations, CEGEPs and hospitals.
According to the group Vélo Québec, more than 1.5 million people used the REV on St. Denis last year. The organization's president, Jean-Francois Rheault, said having something similar in the west end is an interesting idea.
"Its design helps cyclists cross barriers like Highway 40 and Highway 15. We know it's always difficult to cross highways, so securing crossings is interesting," he said.
In an email, a spokesperson for the City of Montreal said, "Our administration is speeding up safe travel for all users by continuously improving the cycling network to better connect outlying neighbourhoods and relieve congestion on the road network."
The city also said it will analyze the proposed bike route.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.