Winter bike paths

I recently asked "what bike paths are open in the winter?" One of my readers responded with this news from the JdeM:

Il y a plus que les rues dont les cols bleus doivent se préoccuper lorsque vient le temps de déneiger maintenant.

Pour la première fois cet hiver, la Ville de Montréal s'est donné pour objectif de maintenir un « réseau blanc » d'environ 25 kilomètres de pistes cyclables ouvert presque en permanence.

Ainsi, la nouvelle piste cyclable qui longe le boulevard De Maisonneuve, au centre-ville, était parfaitement accessible hier.

Les pistes longeant les rues Berri, Viger, Saint-Antoine, McGill, René-Lévesque, Saint-Urbain et du Parc font aussi partie de ce réseau hivernal.

Let's think about this for a while.

Ok, this is what I conclude: du Parc in now officially a bike path street!

It's only the first two blocks that are bike path, but soon, (in my lifetime maybe) du Parc will have marked-bike-lanes painted on the road like St-Urbain south.

Oh, about the unfrozen bike paths? Well the problem is that they are not dry-road-clean, meaning snow-covered sections, with bonus ice-covered, partly icy, partly slush, partly salt-water, partly snow bank, partly pedestrians, and a few bikes too.

I was reading a book by the progressive and dead architect who had a show last summer at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. One thing he zeroed in on in his book were italian town with covered sidewalks and stairs, for long distances.

I am aware that it is perfectly unrealistic, but the only real solution for safe winter cycling is covered bike paths.

Dreaming, in technicolor!

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Note: This was our 3ooth Cycle Fun Montreal post!