Photo(s) du jour : Bike lane, retouched

9 comments

1. Bravo, about time! The lines marking the St-Urbain lane had practically disappeared in spots and it made riding down a bit hair-raising. Do hope there is eventually a dedicated lane. Pity no arrangement was made for a dedicated lane northwards when St-Laurent underwent extensive repairs and renovation.

   Cédric, my ride yesterday could be part of your chronicle of (Eastern) Asian Montréal life, as I rode to Jarry in St-Michel to have a look at Kim Phat, the modern supermarket branch there. Lots of bad road surfaces thereabouts.

   Happy cycling everyone!

2. Ah yes, the Kim Phat on Jarry!

   http://www.flickr.com/photos/smurfmatic/sets/72157603473493232/

3. In 2008, 48 of the planned 80km’s of various style lanes were completed before the onset of winter, the remaining 32km’s are being completed this year. For 2009, 60 additional km’s are planned: 20km’s of dedicated lanes, 25km’s of on-street lanes and 15 km’s of shared lanes. The eventual goal is to double the 400km network of 2007 to 800km’s by 2013.

   Niomi, corruption exists at every level of every jusisdiction in the world. In that regard, Montréal is no worse and certainly a lot better than many of the places where I have lived. I agree that it is important to protest fraud and corruption but making wildly exaggerated accusations, ill-informed rants and seeing the boogyman in every closet is not the way to go about it.

4. Does a map exist as yet of all the new lanes that are to be added in Mtl? I realize these have been critiqued for just being painted lanes, but I’d still like to see them.

5. There is something very sweetly Canadian about this entry :)

6. Shawn: Google Gazette bike lanes. Click on the first link. Next to the article that comes up is a link (under the heading “More on this story”) to a pdf of the bike lane map.

7. This was a quick post by Cédric, but it is obviously based on a lot of observation of urban life and its rituals (and not only among Sino-Montréalais people!) I loved his flicker page on Kim Phat, that really takes you around this supermakret and provides a discreet glimpse of its customers and staff.

   I think a lot of people who are interested in urbanism are aware of the harm done by corruption and funds winding up in someone’s pocket. But it is disingenous to single out an environmentally-friendly programme for such scrutiny – look at the huge amounts of money that are dilapidated in highway construction that promotes suburban sprawl, to say nothing of the funds wasted on WAR.

8. I always wondered why the street lines, crosswalks and the bike lanes markings were so badly visible. Last winter it dawned to me. It’s because of the snow plows and snow scrapers! The scraped ice pushed in front of those machines works as excellent sandpaper and just erases all road markings. Repainting the road markings every year is another expense that other cities don’t have. Think what could have been done with all those 100s of millions annually that are spend just on repairing the effects of our harsh winter climate. And yes, I know we need to spend much more to make everything perfect. But it’s a losing battle. Unless climate change will change our winters in rainy ones. The horror.

9. Good point, mare.

   I have other issues about the sand that’s used to keep our roads car-friendly at – 30.

   For example, that leftover sand makes rollerblading really dangerous in the spring, and contributes to a lot of flat tires for the early weeks of warm-weather biking.

   I bike all winter, and prefer crushed snow under my tires to the perfect asphalt that is accomplished through sand and chemical melting agents.

   But hey, that’s just me. I realize that cars require slip-free surfaces to avoid killing more people than they already do (collateral damage).