QdesS bike path closures irking some
It was entirely predictable that having a bike path run right through the Quartier des Spectacles and thus get shut down for several of the best cycling weeks of the year was going to annoy people and almost as predictable that the city is telling cyclists to suck it up because it isn’t going to do a thing about it.
ant6n 08:37 on 2011/07/08 Permalink
“During the festivals, the cyclists only have to move a few metres to the north so we feel the bicycle path should remain in place for the time being,”
This seems a response by someone who doesn’t bike themselves.
When you get to St Laurent/Maisonneuve, and you’re being told that as a non-motorized cyclist you’re just too reckless to make your own decision whether your cycling is compatible with the crowds today, and are denied access to public space; you are being told two ways around:
go up to Sherbrooke and detour, coming down Bleury again. This adds 500m to the journey compared to the Maisonneuve bike path (more than a ‘couple’ of metres), there’s a lot of traffic, and it’s up the hill – which is annoying especially with a heavy bixi.
go down to René-Lévesque. While this route is flat, it’s 1km extra, some of it against the one-way flow on St-Laurent, probably involving mixing with the crowds on the sidewalk (not sure why the festival bouncers even told me to go down there).
Kate 13:39 on 2011/07/08 Permalink
You are completely right.
qatzelok 13:28 on 2011/07/09 Permalink
The quickest detour – from East to West – is to walk or ride the wrong way up Clark to Evans, cut across Evans and through the UQAM Science Campus, and then down Jeanne Mance onto Ontario, where you can ride to Bleury, and then back onto the path. This is a lot shorter and a lot less uphill, than going all the way up to Sherbrooke. A helpful security guard at the Jazz Festival (I used to call them the Jazz Gestapo) suggested this short-cut to me.
Kate 11:32 on 2011/07/10 Permalink
qatzelok, that’s a useful piece of advice.