The delay in maintaining our road infrastructure, combined with the increase in vehicle traffic over the past few years, will once again send shockwaves through our roads and bridges this September. In Montreal alone, the Minister of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transportation Electrification has announced investments of $46 million to implement solutions that should enable motorists to survive to the many works scheduled for this autumn. We can only applaud these measures, the majority of which are aimed at facilitating the use of public transit, and recall, in passing, that if there were two people per car at rush hour, congestion would be cut in half...
However, given the rapid success of safe, well-constructed bicycle facilities, it's clear that the solutions proposed by the government do not make any room for bicycles. Since there's clearly no shortage of money or mitigation measures for these upgrades, we feel that Quebec City is missing out on a superb opportunity to integrate cycling coherently and effectively into the urban mobility equation.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the concept of the cycle superhighway is all the rage, and with good reason. The presence of a wide area, away from car traffic, where traffic lights are synchronized to accommodate the flow of cyclists, fills an obvious transportation need. These cycle superhighways extend the distances that can be cycled on a daily basis, linking suburban towns to city centers and generally reducing journey times.
We would like the Ministry of sustainable mobility really believes in cycling and its contribution to improving urban mobility. We appreciate the fact that the ministry is adding solutions to improve mobility for all, but we would have liked it to have had the audacity to include cycling.
Suzanne Lareau
President and General Manager
