Cyclists in NDG say it's only a matter of time before a car or bus strikes and kills someone at an intersection near Vendome metro station.

"I call it the valley of death," said Elaine Ransom

After numerous close calls, they are petitioning their borough leaders to improve safety for a 500 metre stretch of De Maisonneuve Ave. where a bike path lapses into obscurity.

Ransom rides her bicycle to work every day and says she has had multiple close calls with cars.

"Being nicked, almost nicked by taxi drivers or buses who are turning right or swinging out. It is a very dangerous sort of heart in your throat kind of experience," said Ransom.

East and west of Vendome metro station bicycle riders on De Maisonneuve are isolated from heavier traffic by bollards and a concrete barrier.

"It's only this stretch, this 500 metres from Decarie to Claremont, where the cyclists are not protected, where there's no concrete or bollards protecting the cyclists," said Dan Lambert of the NDG Cycling Association.

"This is a very, very dangerous area."

That is also the most heavily travelled stretch of the Avenue west of Dawson College, being adjacent to the Vendome metro and train station, and acting as a bus terminal for half a dozen STM routes.

The five-way intersection one block west, where De Maisonneuve and Decarie intersect, has become a perpetual traffic jam since construction on the MUHC superhospital began and the lowest section of Decarie Blvd. was blocked off.

With plans in place to shut part of Upper Lachine Rd. as well and turn it into a park, cyclists are asking for the city to build a bicycle bridge that would run south of Vendome metro station.

The estimated cost? $3 million.

Projet Montreal's Peter McQueen, an avid cyclist and the borough councillor for the area, fully supports the idea.

"I'm 100 per cent behind this. I would spend the $3 million tomorrow to get this done," said McQueen.

The Cycling Association met Wednesday at Wesley United Church to gather more names on its petition,

That petition will be presented to the next NDG-CDN council meeting.