There's no doubt that Quebec cities have come a long way in recent years in promoting active transportation and recognizing the rightful place of cycling on our streets. So much so, in fact, that many cities now maintain a network of bicycle paths to enable cycling in all four seasons. At Vélo Québec, the rapid evolution of winter cycling gave us the idea of taking advantage of the 375e next year to host an international conference on winter cycling. The joint bid by Vélo Québec and the Ville de Montréal was accepted by the World Cycling Federation, which will therefore hold the 5th International Winter Cycling Conference in Montreal.e edition of the Winter Cycling Congress in February 2017. For Vélo Québec, this conference is in line with the promotion of winter cycling initiated with Vélo sous zéro, the third edition of which takes place on Sunday, February 14.
In fact, it was very easy to convince the City of Montreal to join us in our bid to organize this conference. Montreal likes to promote itself as North America's leader in four-season cycling, and holding this international conference will give it a great platform to demonstrate this. Let's hope that other Quebec cities will also take advantage of this opportunity to show their colors.
Every year, this congress is the ideal place to talk about cycling in northern cities. In 2017, these discussions will be widely circulated in Quebec, helping to convince skeptics that cycling in winter is a good idea. If some European countries clear their bike paths as a priority or, even better, have heated paths, it's because they're convinced of the usefulness of encouraging bike travel in winter too. I can't wait to see how these realities feed into discussions in Quebec, where it's high time that the next developments to see the light of day are year-round.
Certainly, the Winter Cycling Congress in Montreal in 2017 is a great opportunity to accelerate the development of four-season cycling in Quebec.
Suzanne Lareau
President and General Manager
