{"id":925,"date":"2008-05-20T17:46:55","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T22:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/2008\/05\/20\/plateau-makes-life-easier-for-cyclists-mcgill-makes-it-harder\/"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:54:38","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:54:38","slug":"plateau-makes-life-easier-for-cyclists-mcgill-makes-it-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/05\/20\/plateau-makes-life-easier-for-cyclists-mcgill-makes-it-harder\/","title":{"rendered":"Plateau makes life easier for cyclists, McGill makes it harder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the course of the summer, the Plateau Mont-Royal administration will more than double the number of bicycle parking spaces<\/a> in the borough, thanks to new parking meter loops, sidewalk stands and on-street bike parking areas. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. V\u00e9lo Qu\u00e9bec estimates that 3,000 cyclists take this shortcut every day and, to its credit, it designed bike lanes in the McGill Ghetto<\/a> that respond very well to this natural flow of bicycle traffic. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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). <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And until the city provides that alternative route, Nicell said, the security guard will stay in place.<\/p>\n

(…)<\/p>\n

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.)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. ItContinue reading “Plateau makes life easier for cyclists, McGill makes it harder”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7828,7839,7840,31],"tags":[8,6,48,2429,440,81,1380,50,377,702,72,56,2427,2432,2431,2428,2433,2430,809],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","category-neighbourhoods","category-politics","category-traffic","tag-city-hall","tag-cycling","tag-downtown","tag-jim-nicell","tag-maisonneuve","tag-mcgill","tag-mcgill-campus","tag-mcgill-ghetto","tag-mcgill-university","tag-michelle-lalonde","tag-parking","tag-plateau-mont-royal","tag-plateau-mont-royal-administration","tag-principal-in-charge","tag-security-guard","tag-sherbrooke-hill","tag-university-services","tag-university-st","tag-university-street"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlateau makes life easier for cyclists, McGill makes it harder - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/05\/20\/plateau-makes-life-easier-for-cyclists-mcgill-makes-it-harder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plateau makes life easier for cyclists, McGill makes it harder - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. 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