Montreal, April 17, 2018 - Vélo Québec confesses its disappointment with the Sustainable Mobility policy announced today in Montreal. While the stated targets and principles are hopeful, the concrete measures to develop cycling fall short of the government's ambitions.
Strong principles, ambitious targets
Vélo Québec welcomes the orientations (Reduce - Transfer - Improve) and targets that the government has set itself in terms of reducing car travel, travel times and GHGs, among other things. But it's disappointing to see that the actions that will really help ensure a transfer to cycling are still too timid. Let's not forget that one in three workers lives less than 5 km from his or her workplace, so cycling has the potential (largely untapped for the moment) to help the government achieve its targets.
Budgets aren't there for cycling
In budgetary terms, therefore, the sums detailed today and contained in the latest budget are disappointing. «Today's announcements do not live up to the discussions that led to the development of the Sustainable Mobility policy. Many of them are renewals of existing programs, and there is too little new money,» stresses Suzanne Lareau, pointing out that the sums devoted to cycling represent barely more than 1% of the approximately $9.7 billion earmarked for Sustainable Mobility. By proposing $125 million over 5 years for active transportation, Quebec still pales in comparison with Ontario, which announced $93 million for 2017-2018 alone. For its part, Vélo Québec has already argued that $100 million a year would be needed to initiate a real shift in favor of cycling.
A first test: the revision of the Highway Safety Code
Quebec will have to do more to translate its laudable intentions into action. The adoption, in the next few days, of Bill 165 revising the Highway Safety Code is a first opportunity for the government to prove that it takes cycling seriously and wishes to encourage its practice. There's still time for it to show consistency by abandoning the 433 % increases imposed for cycling offences, and set an example. In doing so, he would be helping to implement his own recommendations aimed at «conveying a positive and encouraging message about active transportation».
