Montreal shows its faith in people
You never know how much you've missed Montreal until you go back and realize, holy smoked meat, it's been how long? In my case, long enough for the city to have transformed from a barely organized death trap into a most pleasant paradise of safe, active transit. By North American standards, anyway. And that's a fine tribute to one strong and stubborn woman, Mayor Valérie Plante.
I get that she may be far from perfect. She's currently running for re-election and there's nothing like a campaign to highlight an incumbent's faults. But golly, she has transformed my beloved home city for the better by making it safe and pleasant to stroll on foot or use a bike.
I drove with my teen from Ottawa and parked (for free) at the Montmorency terminal in Laval. From there we hopped on the metro and went to the Plateau Mont-Royal to enjoy a bol de café au lait on St-Denis. The number of streets that are open to pedestrians blew me away. And the bike lanes on St-Denis, my goodness! Where we used to have four lanes of maniacal traffic, we now have two protected and wide bike lanes, some space for patios, and two lanes for motor vehicles. And guess what? On that Sunday morning there were more people biking than driving.
We rented ourselves some BIXI bikes. There are stations everywhere — and when you download the app it will tell you where the nearest one is. We went from the Plateau to the actual mountain to downtown via the McGill Ghetto and campus, almost all the way on protected paths.
Unbelievable. There are no helmet regulations (except for e-bikes; which in pure Montreal fashion everybody ignores) and I wasn't nervous about it one bit precisely because we were on protected paths. If you're not at risk of being hit by a car, there is very little reason to wear protective gear. Which was just as well, seeing as I was wearing a skirt and flip flops. After 45 minutes of smile-inducing pedalling, we docked our bikes off University near Ste-Catherine and went on our merry way.
Did you know that Ste-Catherine was mostly pedestrian now? Me neither, and I nearly fainted. It used to be a rite of passage for Quebec teenagers to survive jaywalking there. Fortunately there's still lots of construction happening so that helped me reorient myself, for what is Montreal in the summer without an impressive collection of orange cones?
The fact that Montreal is slowly turning into an active transportation heaven didn't come easily or without controversy. When she ran for mayor in 2017, Plante campaigned on a platform of transparency and working with the public. And as it turns out, not everyone was pleased when she started slapping bike lanes everywhere. In particular, on rue Saint-Denis (the Bank Street of Plateau Mont-Royal), merchants fretted about the disappearance of parking spots. Reminds you of anything?
Evidently she pressed on and today there is a fair bit of happiness on that street, at least the part of it I saw. It will be interesting to see the verdict of voters later this fall.
Especially as she's doubling down: Last month Plante unveiled a $885-million plan to electrify and diversify transportation in her city, with a view toward reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. Already electric BIXI bikes comprise 20 per cent of the fleet.
Meanwhile in Ottawa it's all we can do to allow cargo e-bikes on our streets and we have let bike-sharing slip because it costs money and we're awfully stingy when it comes to spending tiny amounts on cool stuff to fight climate change and improve human happiness. Can you hear my eye roll from where you are?
Oh, and you know what else? Roads cost money too but somehow we always have plenty of public dollars for that. I hope Valérie Plante gets re-elected to show other politicians that it pays to bet on people, not cars.