Outremont announces cycling path network

Outremont has announced a network of bicycle paths forming a circuit.

The bike paths (pistes cyclable) will be painted on the pavement, forming bike lanes on the road. This is called chaussées désignées in french. (UPDATE: these markings are now painted on the streets). The principle is to let drivers and cyclists SHARE the same street.

Here is a link to the news article (link). Click on the photos link ("voir tout les photos") to see a picture of the bicycle path map. (map link)

The city will also add 155 bike new parking spots, and commented that they have tripled the number of bike parking spots since 2001.

The bike path and parking are steps 1 and 2, step 3 is to integrate the Outremont network into the Ville de Montreal network.

I have a suggestion concerning integrating Outremont into a cuty-wide bike path network. We need (1) a north-west bike axis along the north side of Mt Royal along Cote Ste-Catherine Road from Mt Royal avenue to to Decarie blvd, with (2) a link north-west through Outremont across the Rockland overpass to Jean Talon and (3) from there north-west through VMR/TMR along Graham street to (4) St-Croix street in Ville St-Laurent.

The city will be presenting bike safety information to school children this month. The city wants to remind everyone that children learn by following the example of their parents: so always obey the traffic rules, it's the smart thing to do.