Push is on for more bike lanes in Gatineau

Plan would expand network by 150 km

A Gatineau city councillor unveiled an ambitious plan to add more than 150 kilometres of bike lanes in the next seven years on Wednesday night — something that cycling advocates say will help the city as it plays catch-up on its cycling infrastructure.

“Up until now, on the Gatineau side, there wasn’t much. A few bike paths here and there. There’s not much money put into the infrastructure,” said Bernard Hurteau, vice-president of Action Vélo Outaouais, a cycling advocacy group in the region.

“In the last couple years, they ’ve been putting more and more money, but not enough. They say they’re putting about $9 a citizen for infrastructure, which is clearly not enough.”

Many of the bike lanes in Gatineau are part of the National Capital Commission’s cycling network, but there is a paucity of on-street cycling infrastructure, the kind that is often most useful to commuters. The plan being spearheaded by Coun. Daniel Champagne would see 150 km of new cycle tracks, many of them at road level, built by 2025, assuming the plan is approved by city council next month.

“We’re light years behind Ottawa and even further behind Montreal,” Hurteau said. “Now with this plan that they ’ve come up with, we have a clear idea of where the city is going.”

Gatineau had about 282 km of cycling infrastructure in 2016, the city’s website stated. According to city data from 2015, Ottawa has 737 km of cycling infrastructure — eight km of protected cycle tracks, 272 km of multi-use pathways, 200 km of on-road bike lanes and 257 km of paved shoulders. (If the 163 km of NCC-owned pathways is included, the total on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River comes to 900 km.)

There’s a renewed interest in the possibility of improving the cycling infrastructure in Gatineau after the city’s municipal election last year, says Hurteau.

Champagne was, for a time, one of the sole pro-cycling voices on council.

“He was really alone at city council doing bike stuff and pushing it,” Hurteau said. “Now there’s at least three others who are very, very pro-bike. The mayor is also very pro-bike.”

While the broad strokes of the plan have been developed, planners now need to dive into the specifics.

A detailed version of the plan, including a priority list, will be presented to city council next month. Hurteau said he hopes that winter cycling infrastructure is high on the list.

“In that whole package, there’s a smaller winter cycling project, a pilot project — it will be presented, too,” he said.

“In Gatineau, we don’t have a winter cycling track, and we’re pushing to get one. We see what’s going on on the other side (of the river), and we’re envious.”

That lack of winter cycling tracks even pushes some people to cross provincial borders.

“We know a lot of people who cycle, and often they take the closest bridge to Ottawa, to Ontario, and cycle on that side,” Hurteau said.