Raise the Hammer

With a minimal amount of effort we could surpass Montreal.

And I might add it would have minimal negative impact on the ability to drive in the city.

but dear god, we could lose valuable lanes on our downtown expressways!!! haha, oh will that ever get old... i hope it does one day. but this is hamilton

go go status quo!

"Freezing, snowy, hilly Montreal," you well note, Jason. And also a city famous for it's agressive drivers.

Montreal would seem in many ways to be an unlikely city for any sort of cycling base, but there it is. And if they can do it ... well, surely, we could, too, right? Can I get an 'amen'?

I will note, however, two things that Montreal has going for it in terms of a down-town cycling base ...

• several downtown campuses with a large student population to go with them
• cross-town streets which are not expressways

That said, I still think that much of our relative disadvantage is simply political will.

Comment edited by moylek on 2011-11-04 12:17:20

AMEN!

comment from banned user deleted

According to this, there are over 1,800 buses in their transit system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Société_de_...

Comment edited by jason on 2011-11-04 17:52:58

comment from banned user deleted

They have the Metro and a whole lot of surface bus routes downtown: http://www.stm.info/english/info/centre-...

In fact, there are buses all over the city in it's busiest and most dense neighbourhoods: http://www.stm.info/english/info/reseau2...

Not that it matters. Making a city friendly and convenient for cycling can happen regardless of whether said city has a subway component to it's transit system or not.

It'll never work here. Jason, both you and Ryan used examples of cities where they speak French as the main language. Says it all right there.

From my experience walking, biking and driving in Montreal, there's really only a couple French words you need. Most seem to relate to the church...

Was recently on Montreal. Oh boy does it do it right. It understands something I didn't for awhile: every major civic project connects flawlessly with commercial, residential, sports, work, etc. It seems here we too often operate in isolation both public and private.

In a completely unrelated note, why does the new bus structure at McNab not have a freaking Timmies?

The president of the bike-sharing company Bixi has resigned because he can no longer guarantee that taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the company’s deficits.

Roger Plamondon quit on Friday after five years of involvement with financially flailing Bixi, confirmed company spokesman Michel Philibert.

Bixi operates separate organizations in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Plamondon left because of money problems at the Montreal branch, for which he blames the Quebec provincial government, he told the CBC.

In Plamondon’s tenure, Bixi racked up a $108 million budget shortfall in Montreal — $37 million for operations and $71 million to expand its business internationally.

....

More @ http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1086082--bixi-bikes-boss-quits-after-bumpy-ride

Well there, that tears it. Bikes are a miserable failure and a financial liability…oh, what? That is just an error by the provincal government mismanaging itself? Shocking! Give me a break with the bike hating already.

Bike contribute to making roads more dangerous IMHO especially during rush hour. I have nothing agains't bikes, have used bikes in the past for transportation to get to school, work etc. but no question they cause problems on roads designed for vehicles. Bikes need specific bike lanes for the safety of all.

When driving on a narrow road and a cyclist is riding between a car and a curb, and I've done this in the past, you can hit a rut and fall over and cause all sorts of havoc. One can't assume all cyclists are experienced and know the best way to ride in traffic on narrow roads.

I don't have any data but it seems logical to me that the more bikes on the road where there are not specific bike lanes, that this adds to congestion when traffic is high and people are rushing to work in their cars and are thinking about a lot of things at the same time.

I haven't read all of this article but noticed this on wiki:

Segregated Cycle Facilities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segregated_cycle_facilities#Evidence_against