Road to Nowhere

"We're on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
Takin' that ride to nowhere
We'll take that ride"
                               Road to Nowhere-Talking Heads, Little Creatures 1985

Appropriate that I think of this Talking Heads song when pondering why the section of St. Laurent Boulevard between Bernard and Bellechase is one of the most frustrating places where cyclists and pedestrians interact in Montreal since David Byrne is a celebrity cyclist with his published 'Bicycle Diaries'.

This section from the Montreal Cycling Map available on the city's website shows the origin of the problem. Someone decided to designate a bike lane on Bellechase that just ends at Saint-Dominque. Since the closest way to get south past the railway is to take St. Laurent, most cyclists choose to slip onto the sidewalk until they get down to Bernard and can pick up the bike path on Clark.

Cyclists heading north on St. Laurent are fairly evenly divided between those who take the road and those who poach onto the sidewalk. In a certain respect, it is understandable that a cyclist will avoid the road even when travelling north since vehicles tend to traverse this section at excessive speed due to a combination of the dip in the road to pass under the rail line and because there is no traffic light after Bernard until Beaubien.

Apparently, the city has some plans to improve cycling infrastructure in the area in line with an overall vision for the area (http://www.montreal2025.com/projet.php?id=65&lang=en). However, there is an alternate choice. Rather than dealing with traffic and pedestrians on St. Laurent, cyclists can use the rail line that can be accessed by following the Clark bike path around Parc Clark from the south or by cutting through the gravel area just east of the Villeneuve Woodlot at Bellechasse and Saint-Dominique from the north.

I had to cut the video in a few spots to get it to upload, but the whole trip took about five minutes at a leisurely pace. Compared to the more direct route along the sidewalk on St. Laurent it might be a couple of minutes longer assuming you don't have to stop and argue with irate pedestrians along the way or get held up at the traffic light at Bernard in which case it probably takes no longer to take the safer, scenic route.

No guarantees, though, that the bongo players will be there everytime.