Is Montreal a bike-friendly city?

Question

I mean, are there special bands for bikes?Do a lot of people have bikes?

Answer 1

There are plenty of bike paths in Montreal. Montreal has over 300km of roadway dedicated to biking on the island. At our office near Atwater, we have two people that bike in daily during the summer months and then shower at the office.

Oddly enough, I have seen the exact opposite of what the Goddess of Grammar encountered. Many motorists try to go out of the way to accomodate people on bikes, but I myself have witnessed cyclists that dart out into traffic without signalling, and one cyclist nearly ran me down and started cursing at me for crossing the street on the walk signal after HE ran the red light!

The worst place is Sherbrooke Street. There is so much traffic (two lanes each way), parked cars on both sides, and the cyclists choose to roll along on this already dangerous street when there are two excellent bike paths nearby (one block north on Cote St. Antoine, or one block south on De Maisonneuve and through Westmount Park.)

I guess the only way to decide would be to try it out yourself.

Answer 2

There are a couple other options to look at. It's odd that you've included Halifax and Quebec city but left out Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa, (the fourth, fifth, and sixth biggest cities in Canada; Calgary is actually more economically important to Canada than Vancouver). You've otherwise done a pretty decent summary of the cities. Calgary's not in the mountains but you can see them from there on a clear day, and Ottawa is near to Montreal and skiing if that's what you like. If you're looking for smaller cities as well, Victoria, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, London, Kitchener-waterloo? The prairies are generally very economically strong, fairly friendly, but the winters can be spectacularly long and cold. Southern Ontario is struggling economically, but is also fairly friendly, the weather is warmer, but put it this way, they had to call in the military this week to find some motorists that got lost in the weather on a major freeway. If you're going to live in QUebec you can't learn French while there. You need to be fluent before you start or you won't get a job.

Answer 3

Montreal is probably the most bike-friendly city in the world! A lot of streets have special bicycle lanes. And some of these special bicycle lanes take into account the two way traffic of bicycles. So the lanes are twice as thick! The mountain (Mont Royal) is also a hot spot for bicyclists (as well as walkers and runners).

Montreal has so many bicyclists. I always have fun saying that in Montreal, your chances getting hit by a bicycle are far greater than getting hit by a car.

Lastly, a lot of Montreal's bicyclists are so dedicated that they ride their bicycles year round! Even when the mountain is completely covered with ice, you will still see some die-hard bicyclists riding their bicycles on its icy paths.

Answer 4

Yes and no. There are bike paths and bike lanes, but not by any stretch are they along every street. If you do want to travel by bike path only, you will sometimes have to go several blocks out of your way. If you DON'T want to travel by bike path only, you may find car-people are ticked with you. Once I was spat on and I have been sworn at--not necessarily for doing anything wrong, just for being a biker and obviously not able to go as fast as cars.

There's also a mountain in the middle of the city, makes the riding a little tough at times.

Answer 5

very we have miles of bike trails all around montreal and into the suburbs and some even cross into laval and the south shore. (laval is another island north of montreal and south shore is in mainland south of montreal) you can even bring your bike on board some subway trains (at certain subway stations olny) even on commuter trains and some buses.