Over the course of the summer, the Plateau Mont-Royal administration will more than double the number of bicycle parking spaces in the borough, thanks to new parking meter loops, sidewalk stands and on-street bike parking areas.
On-street parking, which removes parking spaces for cars and replaces them with space for bikes, is particularly interesting. It doesn’t obstruct the sidewalk and it also sends a strong message that, in an area like the Plateau, cycling is far more efficient than driving. Currently, on-street bike parking area are found on St. Viateur, Mount Royal, Laurier and a handful of other streets. Six new areas will be added this summer.
The same thing is happening in Ville-Marie, which is also adding many new parking spots for bikes this year. Although the borough has been experimenting with on-street bike parking for a couple of years, the results were always mixed, with some spots that were underused and others overcrowded. This year seems to be more of a success. Streamlined bike racks have been placed in busy spots near Concordia, UQAM and the downtown shopping district. They already seem well-used, which is an encouraging sign considering some of the doubts last year about the effectiveness of the de Maisonneuve bike path.
While the Plateau and Ville-Marie boroughs are making life easier for cyclists, however, McGill University seems to be making it harder. Anyone who bikes between downtown and the Plateau knows that the best way to pass between the two is to cut through the McGill campus. It’s a very pleasant way to avoid heavy traffic and the steep Sherbrooke hill further east. Vélo Québec estimates that 3,000 cyclists take this shortcut every day and, to its credit, it designed bike lanes in the McGill Ghetto that respond very well to this natural flow of bicycle traffic.
Unfortunately, McGill doesn’t like cyclists passing through its campus. As Michelle Lalonde reported in her Green Life column this weekend, the university is actually trying to discourage non-student cyclists, and instead of creating a bikeway on its own campus, it is pressuring the city to build a bike lane on University Street that would take cyclists to the de Maisonneuve bike path. Lalonde has more:
Campus officials have been arguing with the city about its decision to have its Milton St. bike way feed right into the campus at the University St. entrance. McGill would prefer the city build a bike lane down University to join the new path on de Maisonneuve Blvd. (University is a narrow, busy, one-way street and a hospital route to boot, so the city is understandably reluctant).
For the past few weeks, McGill has actually posted a security guard near its University St. entrance to direct west-bound cyclists up and over a steep hill on the campus. This is to stop them from taking the regular, much shorter route, which includes a short jog west and south against the posted traffic direction. This, of course, frustrates cyclists as they must either turn around, walk their bikes or climb the hill northward and then sail down through the campus’s central road, at a much greater speed than they would normally gather, weaving through more pedestrians toward the Sherbrooke St. gates.
University officials say it is simply a safety issue. Cyclists shouldn’t ride against one-way traffic, and the campus has very dense foot traffic in this area at certain times of the day. Apparently there have been some close calls between cyclists and pedestrians, and cyclists and cars.
But Jim Nicell, McGill’s associate vice-principal in charge of university services, told me quite frankly the university is actively trying to discourage non-McGill cyclists from riding through the campus. While the university wants to encourage its own students and staff to arrive by bike, it wants others to take some other route downtown.
And until the city provides that alternative route, Nicell said, the security guard will stay in place.
(…)
How about building a bike path through the campus to keep cyclists in line? (Nicell said that would just be “asking for trouble” by encouraging more cyclists to use the route.) How about removing some of the parking along that one-way stretch to give both pedestrians and cyclists more room? (Nicell said it’s the city that should remove parking along University St. to make a bike path.)
Maybe it’s time for cyclists to make a point: even if it you don’t need to, take a detour through the McGill campus.
24 comments
It’s sad really to see McGill always trying to separate itself from community spirit. Taking the detour doesn’t bother me so much although it does seem silly, and you do go a lot faster through the central intersection which is probably even more dangerous then against traffic. It’s also interesting that they are doing this now where there will be less resistance from student activist groups then if it where during the school year.
I live on the Plateau and have used the bike to go to McGill every day this Spring. I agree that the campus is technically the best shortcut for cyclists, which is passing through the University Street entrance (called Milton gate). And I completely understand the frustrations raised here.
However, I have to side with McGill on this issue. I seriously doubt that the university’s goal is to “make life harder” for cyclists. It actually is a security matter, and it all has to do with the type of space that we’re concerned with. I bet the majority of students and staff members would agree on this. What works near Concordia or UQAM (i.e. bike paths along busy avenues) does NOT necessarily work for McGill.
As a secluded, green space, the inner main campus (from University to McTavish) is dominated by pedestrian traffic due to its environment: abundant grass fields, winding paths, paved sidewalks, sitting chairs. Hardly the type of space that surrounds UQAM or Concordia. In many ways, it’s a park.
Car traffic is minimal, since entrance is restricted. Moreover, the small network of streets serves 2 functions: parking space for staff or visitors, and moving of op. vehicles, mostly delivery trucks, security guards, etc. There is hardly what one would call “significant car traffic”, hence, a sense of seclusion away from city streets. And no traffic lights. As a result, during school semesters, there are lots, LOTS, of students walking up and down the main campus, and inevitably a lot of people who cross streets everywhere (not just at corners). Between pedestrians and cyclists, it can sometimes become a risky free-for-all. I have been surprised many times by cyclists who would just zip by, cut in front of me, or brake suddenly as I was about to cross. Thankfully, there are not a lot of accidents happening, but certainly a fair share of close calls.
To be honest, as a pedestrian, I’m thankful for McGill’s approach. And when it comes down to it, the campus is private property. As far as I’m concerned, McGill is entitled to its own regulations, on its own premises.
I’m glad you posted this here, because I wanted a chance to comment on it.
I was cycling through the campus a few weeks ago and I saw that security guard standing by the lower lane. Somehow, I sensed that he would stop me if I went my usual route, so I detoured with the traffic, up the hill, past the Arts Building and then down.
It was no big deal.
I’m probably the oldest person on this site. I’ll be 50 this fall (!). If people cannot cycle up this “steep hill,” how can they make it up Park Avenue from Pine? Or the bike path running up Berri from Old Montreal? Or any number of other bike routes?
What these ‘frustrated cyclists’ are advocating for is being able to cycle around a BLIND CORNER in the WRONG DIRECTION.
Too many cyclists in this town thing they have the right to cycle wherever they want, and the safety of others be damned.
This is a non-issue. McGill isn’t banning bikes. Suck it up and cycle up the effing hill.
The blame seems to be put on either the city or the school, but never on the bikers. Why do they have to ride so fast in that central road in the first place? Can’t they acknowledge that they are in a mostly pedestrian environment?
I’ve been biking to go downtown through McGill since the beginning of spring. On my way, I see that most bikers don’t respect the street signs and zigzag dangerously between pedestrians and cars. I don’t see why we should accommodate the bikers if they’re not able to act in a responsible way.
I am shocked — shocked! — that McGill would be so insular
So McGill has “actually posted a security guard” near its entrance to enforce road rules for cyclists, and this is “frustrating” for cyclists. Ok. Kinda like it’s “frustrating” for drivers to have to drive below the speed limits, stop at red lights, and take “detours” by refraining from driving the wrong way down one-way streets.
Shawn, I’m older than you are – and I’m sending this along to Bicycle Bob Silverman, who is over 70! Despite a touch of arthritis, I have no trouble climbing either the avenue du Parc hill above av des Pins or the Berri hill, as they were properly graded, unlike the McGill hill. It is very antisocial to tell people who might have physical limitations to “suck it up and climb the hill”
Technically, universities are private property, but not in the sense of a private business or home – our taxes pay for them, and traditionally universities are open to non-students and non-staff for consultations at the library, public lectures and events, etc.
I don’t agree with going the wrong way either, but it would be easy to solve this problem by painting a bicycle lane in the opposite direction, as has been done recently on avenue de l’Esplanade between Villeneuve and Mont-Royal (in front of the home of the late cycling activist Claire Morrissette) and elsewhere in the neighbourhood. It is important to design bicycle lanes that follow the natural flow of traffic, and privilege bicycles above cars, as we are part of the solution to the current environmental crisis; they are part of the problem.
The problem at the McGill Campus is not with the happy cyclists who get a break from fighting downtown traffic when they use the convenient and pleasant ‘lower’ Roddick Gate to Milton Gate route; it is the cars parked along that route that usurp precious space. Why on earth does McGill privilege a few dozen car drivers and their odorous hulks over a steady stream of quiet cyclists?
Do away with parking on this route, outline two bike paths on the road surface, install a few speed bumps (if ‘safety’ is considered a problem,) and presto: McGill would serve a growing community of environmentally friendly users (year-round!), instead of a handful of troglodytes and their carapaces.
Loss of parking income? 30.000 students,
thousands of employees, thousands of cyclists, thousands of office workers taking a lunch break, various groups of kindergarten kids would all benefit from this simple measure. Who does the accounting at this University? Loss of control over ‘private property’? The Roddick and Milton gates are habitually closed one day a year to prevent the exercise of ‘acquired rights’ by anyone; this includes the right to parking!
The inability to bike down the “one-way” lane is inconvenient even for people affiliated with McGill. I was working in the McConnell Engineering Building last year, which is just at the corner of Milton and University. It’s also inconvenient for people in other buildings who are coming in from the Ghetto, as well. The only way to get to Sherbrooke from the Milton gates is to bike up the hill and then down again; it is much longer and has a slope. Sure, it’s not that hard, but it’s just unnecessary.
As currently configured, the lane is actually dangerous to bike on, because of the blind curve mentioned in some of the previous comments. The curve would be much better if there was no parking on the lane, at least in the vicinity of the curve. (This would be about 3-4 parking sports, which are mostly currently out of commission due to construction anyway.)
I’ve been biking through McGill on that same path for about 4 years now, and it’s true – close calls happen, and that curve is definitely a blind one. When I first read this post I was ready to join the ‘WTF McGill’ bandwagon. While other campuses are ostensibly attempting to integrate bike and pedestrian paths among their campuses (UQAM, Concordia), it wouldbe easy to go after McGill on the elitist front. But the points raised about these technically being way pathways make a lot of sense, and increased bicycle traffic could cause more problems.
What is incredibly frustrating, though, is that McGill’s suggestion of adding a path down University is exactly the wrong solution. While I regularly use bike paths going against one way streets, I find them incredibly dangerous. I’ve had more close calls going along them than biking through McGill, mostly from people coming out of alleys and side streets without realising there is an opposite-direction bike path. I was even hit on Villeneuve last spring using the path between St-Urbain and Clarke. So whatever the solution is, I hope it is to find a way to let cyclists keep using McGill’s campus and not just shove us on a steep hill between parked cars and oncoming traffic.
Maria, if you have no trouble making it up that long Berri hill, you’re in a lot better shape than me.
But the “steep hill” at McGill is in fact a rise of a few feet. It’s nothing.
Just to repeat what others have said, but you are misreading the role of the security guards. They are trying to create two separate lanes of bike traffic, one going east (the lower route) and one going west (the upper route). This is because if you head west on the upper route, it is quite easy to hit another cyclist or pedestrian.
The hill is like 40 feet long and mellow. It’s actually easier to go up over the top when you head west because it’s a wider route and there are fewer pedestrians.
I stopped and chatted with the security guards twice and they were very friendly and seemed to have no problem with bikes. They just wanted us to use the proper and more safe routes.
Calling this a “security issue” is a red herring. If having non-students on campus is a security issue, why do they only stop *cyclists*, but let any and all *pedestrians* through? McGill is spending precious money on hiring a security guard to stop cyclists because they don’t like cyclists, period.
Of course, I will point out that he is a private security guard – not a police officer. In other words, complying with what he asks is purely optional.
Fine, Paul. Blow right by him on your bike, preferably at breakneck speed. Maybe you’ll hit the jackpot and run some poor kid over.
Paul, it’s a security issue in the sense of safety for pedestrians and, yes, cyclists too. Saying that McGill is “hiring security guards” because they don’t like cyclists is like saying the city hires traffic police because it doesn’t like drivers. It’s a safety issue for everyone. Whatever the merits are of building a bike path through campus, or removing parking spots, the fact is is that right now, it’s not safe for pedestrians or cyclists. Suggesting that cyclists not comply with what he asks is just irresponsible. Would you want drivers on McGill campus to take the same attitude?
I just wanted to bring up one small issue with all the bike racks that take up parking spaces, a lot of people tend to forget that not everyone lives at a biking distance away from downtown! So keep them on the sidewalks of the side-streets where there’s less foot traffic, the racks that block St-Cathrine in a couple of places could be placed on the perpendicular streets instead, the one next to Zara is an accident waiting to happen.
Reading the comments, I feel that some people just want to take this as a fight against the big man.
So this all just happened to arise while students (and student activists) are mostly out of school. Well it’s probably more likely that it happened to arise while it’s biking season, which happens to occur around summer semester.
So the university is hiring another fascist security guard to enforce its policy. The university also probably has some liability were any accident to occur on campus and therefore needs to at least demonstrate that it reasonably tried to avoid any problem.
Yes, Concordia’s Sir George Williams campus and UQÀM’s primary Quartier Latin campus have cycling paths running through them. But these are both urban campuses and the streets are public thoroughfares; the paths were installed at the city’s will more than anything else. (I could be mistaken, but more reasonably comparable Loyola campus doesn’t have any dedicated paths.)
This complaining fits well with all-too-many Montrealers’ perception of avid cyclists in this city (and a point a few other commenters touched on): cyclists feel like they’re above the law. I agree with the overall premise that McGill should do more for its community, and opening itself to cyclists is a good start, but if this is a public relations battle we’re waging, we’ll surely lose it this way.
Just wanted to say thanks for reporting this. Like the others I use this route all the time and was annoyed at the guard.
In case anyone is curious i asked the guard if there was any possibility of getting a fine for breaking the rules (always my first reaction when I’m told something I do is against the rules, since I got murdered with a 200$ fine for not having my STM student card when I was a student) and she said there wasn’t. So if there’s no guard it’s probably safe to pass through.
As one who has been flattened by a cyclist on the Lower Campus in the past (over ten years ago now, though!), I have little sympathy for the complaints of cyclists that they are being actively policed when they use pedestrian spaces in the middle of campus.
That said, the university would be well-advised to create two-way bikeways running both ways (E-O and N-S) through the Lower Campus.
Making decisions without the big picture context.
Reading the university’s staff person’s responses I’m reminded of the story I read recently about New Orleans, school buses and hurricane Katrina.
It seems that an official had been put in charge of making sure all the local school bus drivers in New Orleans were safely evacuated so that after the storm they could be recalled if needed to transport people out of town.
The city’s 700 buses were parked together in an open area.
The plan went perfectly.
Until the levees broke, the buses, parked 11 feet below sea level, were flooded and the drivers (with keys!) were out of town. No one could be transported out and the buses were lost.
But the planning official, in his narrow context, had done everything right.
All to say – Hey McGill – look at the big picture as many here are urging and do what’s right, remove a small amount of parking, set up curb barriers so pedestrians will be safely separated and be part of the overall city context.
PS – Can someone post a picture url of the on-street bike parking mentioned so this out of towner can see what they look like. Thx
A university campus is an area for pedestrians. As much as it shouldn’t be a car park, it definitely shouldn’t be a bike highway.
Many years ago a McGill employee died when he was hit by a bike courier taking exactly the same route people here are advocating. The cyclist was going so fast that he knocked the employee over, who hit his head on the curb right by the Roddick Gates.
This isn’t an issue of security… it’s a safety/legal issue.
There was a lot of talk about this about 5-6 years ago within McGill’s Environmental Subcommittee (http://www.mcgill.ca/rethink/), but the key problem here is that McGill’s grounds are considered private property. If a cyclist were to be hurt (or were to hurt someone else), then it would be the university’s responsibility. Which is why the university allows students to go through, but not non-students. Biking is great, but let’s be honest… some cyclists can be a**holes.
let’s be quite honest – some cyclists can be passholes! and so can motorists of course.
I think that this raises very interesting issues of public, private, and common property.
Setting the basic arguments of flow of traffic aside, what are the grounds of McGill to be considered if they are open to the public and partake of public and private funds?
We shouldn’t let issues like this pass lightly, urban space is going to be something we may find ourselves without one day, if it is forever allowed to be privatized.
It can hardly be considered common space if the grounds (note I’m not considering buildings part of this argument) are independently policed.
This is not about bikes in one-way traffic, since the restrictions are causing more of this than they prevent (on University and Mctavish).
McGill has a long history of stubborness about bikes…. just try riding a bike to the McLennan library from anywhere on campus: the only way to lock up is to either carry your bike down the stairs, or to ride illegally against traffic on McTavish.
It’s just getting worse and it’s shameful.
There is far more bike traffic on campus than car traffic. I say re-route cars, not bikes.