Reseau Blanc Montreal

How to know there is a year round section of bike paths in Montreal? Well, you really need to know about it before even looking for it on the city's website:

http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/TRANSPORT_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/R%C9SEAU%20BLANC%202010.PDF

In fact, you would be hard pressed to notice that Montreal is one of the top cycling cities in North America since there is no mention at all of cycling on the city's 'Transportation and Public Works' page except for a link at the bottom to the Bixi site. Though you will get directed to a link for the city map of bike paths under 'Summer Activities' on the 'Sports and Recreation' page. So much for promoting cycling as an environmentally friendly form of transportation.

However, what I am really wondering is how city decided what routes would be part of the Reseau Blanc? Looking at the map on the above link, I cannot understand why the city did not include all of the Rachel path in order to connect Parc Jeanne Mance to Parc Maissoneuve as well as keeping rue Clark open all the way to the rail path at Van Horne?

Clark at Bernard

Rue Clark is certainly wide enough to have the bike path open all year even with snow clearing. Plus, it is much the safer route, path or no path, than dealing with the traffic on St. Laurent or St. Urbain. Even with the path closed, cyclists still use Clark in both directions. Same applies for the continuation of the North/South path on Boyer.

Boyer at Rosemont

The snow earlier this week had me all set to put the bike away for the next four months, but I have since reconsidered. The only way to demonstrate the utility of keeping more bike paths open year round is to keep our bikes on the road year round. They could even be designated multi-use paths in the winter; for bikes, sleds, skis or snowshoes. A real Reseau Blanc!