bikers – The Concordian

Montrealers push for a better safety system for roads and bike paths within the city

Community members gathered at a panel to discuss issues cyclists and pedestrians face in Montréal with regards to inadequate safety while commuting in the city alongside cars—many demand for accessible and secure road measures.

The event, “Who Rules the Road?” was held on Oct.27 at the offices of Alternatives, a Quebec-based international solidarity group, on Parc Avenue. It was hosted by Building Community—a project of the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee which is dedicated to promoting community improvement via social action and education.

Four panelists were present, including Marc-André Gadoury, representing the district of Étienne-Desmarteau in the borough of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie; Alex Norris, a Projet Montréal city councilor; Magali Bébronne, a project manager at Vélo-Québec; and Michael Seth Wexler, a project manager and urban planner at Copenhagenize Design Company.

“We wanted to raise awareness surrounding the issue of cyclist and pedestrian safety because they’re the most vulnerable demographic on the streets at the moment,” event organizer and former Concordia student, Spiro Metaxas, told The Concordian. Another large factor that sparked interest for organizing the event, he said, was the incident this past summer where a woman was killed while cycling in Montreal.

Justine Charland St-Amour, 24, was killed at the intersection of Iberville Street and Rosemont Boulevard on Aug. 22 when a truck driver turned into Charland St-Amour’s path and hit her, having not seen her in his blind spot, reported CTV News. According to the same article, she was declared deceased at the scene, and Montreal police stated neither party was to blame.

For problems concerning intersections, Metaxas suggested having a light dedicated to cyclists, allowing them to go first before car traffic begins to circulate. He referenced an intersection in the McGill ghetto which effectively does this.

Metaxas said many issues addressed by the panel centred around non-compliance, referring to cyclists, cars or pedestrians who do not comply with road safety rules or traffic rules. Metaxas said he thinks people need to start taking responsibility for themselves as motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. “I think that’s where the crux of the problem is—non-compliance,” he said.

“We wanted to take the opportunity to, once again, shine a spotlight on this issue that’s becoming rather persistent and that we think is preventable,” said Metaxas. “Ideally, there would be no deaths—that’s what that Vision Zero plan is for.”

On Sept. 14, the City of Montreal released their plan of action, titled Vision Zero, aimed at improving road safety and reducing deaths, according to the City of Montreal website. Vision Zero introduced nine short-term concrete actions, including reducing speed in residential areas and school zones and equipping intersections with new pedestrian countdown signals or underpasses.

However, in regards to this plan, Metaxas said “there simply isn’t enough action being taken at the moment by either political party.”

Graham Latham, a Concordia student in Communications and Cultural Studies, travels to school by bike. “I’m commuting almost entirely by bike right now,” he said, adding while he enjoys traveling by bike, riding downtown is a nightmare. He said while the de Maisonneuve bike path is accessible for cyclists to use, he described it as very dangerous.

Latham said one of the biggest hazards for cyclists are cars. “People just turn left across the bike path so much without looking, which is scary,” he said. He has to be extra cautious between intersections, he said, ensuring that a car does not turn into his lane. He said he typically commutes via Sherbrooke Street to avoid the danger of the de Maisonneuve bike path, however, the construction around McGill has taken a large toll on accessibility for biking on that street.

“This fall has really sucked for getting to Concordia,” said Latham. He identified two of the most congested and difficult areas to bike around Concordia’s downtown campus are the intersection of Guy and de Maisonneuve, in front of the Guy-Concordia metro station, and the stretch along de Maisonneuve in front of the Hall building.

Many of the complaints Latham had were in connection to what Metaxas said the panel aimed to address.

Graphic by Florence Yee

Cops litter the Maisonneuve bike path with their cash-grabbing tactics

One of my favourite weather-permitting pastimes is biking. Even in Toronto, where I’m from, I cycled everywhere—to school, to meet friends, to work. As a student, I’ve been using my bike for years to cut back on transportation costs. In all those years, I never once got a ticket while on my bike. I’d never really even considered it. But a few weeks ago, I got a ticket for not making a complete halt at a stop sign—and I am beyond pissed off.

I was biking along a typically quiet, low-traffic section of the De Maisonneuve bike path, around 2:30 p.m. I slowed down as I approached an intersection somewhere between Clarke and Greene Ave but, after seeing it was clear, I decided to continue through, mainly to keep my momentum—which hundreds of bikers do all the time—and it all went smoothly. There were no car-bike or bike-bike altercations. Yet next thing I knew, a whistle was blaring behind me. I stopped and turned around to see what had happened, only to find this G.I Joe-like officer running towards me at full-speed.

It was all so overly-dramatic—the chase, the questioning, the identification process. I mean, I truly could not believe it was me that he was pulling over. I was issued a $48 ticket, which although it isn’t a substantial amount, it still puts a decent dent in my already-too-small student budget.

I thought I was the anomaly until, within 24 hours of being issued my ticket, I found at least two other cyclists on social media who received tickets for going through stop signs. These two cyclists were ticketed in front of Laurier Park and at the corner of Bellechasse and St Dominique, according to two Facebook posts on the MTL Trading Hole page.

The whole situation reached another level of ridiculous when the officer ticketing me attempted to reassure me by saying: “I’m issuing you this ticket in the name of road safety.”

Hold up. Rewind. Let’s pretend that my ticket was truly issued “in the name of road safety.” Firstly, I would have been pegged in an area where the safety of road-users is legitimately threatened. For example, Melville Ave, where cyclists would be emerging from Westmount Park, having gained speed through the sloped, winding paths. This is blocks away from Clarke Ave though, and had I been flagged there, I likely would not be writing this article. But was an officer stopping cyclists there? Nope.

Because you see, fellow bikers, these cops don’t get into their cruisers wanting to make our roads safer. The Montreal police have admitted previously that “officers in the city’s special traffic squad are given traffic ticket quotas,” according to CBC News Montreal. Following this is a statement highlighting how the police didn’t admit to traffic quotas earlier because “it would have created negative publicity,” reports the same CBC News article. Does this sound as though all this ticketing is truly “in the name of road safety?”

And to what avail? The issuing of this ticket to me and a few other bikers won’t cause some societal cathartic re-evaluation of how we navigate and share the roads. It’s time we find a more effective solution—something that really is in the name of road safety.