On the joys of snow

A few days ago, a snowstorm hit the province. We accumulated 25 cm over two days. Tomorrow, we'll receive an additional 10-15 cm.
While enjoying the respite I am posting these pictures in hope of illustrating better my position on winter, winter cycling and defending my arguments in the last two posts. As of today, the snow has not been cleared on my street yet, while these pictures were taken on Friday.

Enjoy!

Friday night, I went to my sister's place to pick up some of the furniture I put there during our summer renovations.

She lives right across from a metro station but the volume of the furniture was such that we had to go by car. Plus it was -17 Celsius, excluding windchill.

As we do not own a car, we booked 4 hours of carshare program, Communauto.

In case you did not notice, there a bicycle lane right there, right were the car is parked. Yep, a marked one, with paint on the road and all. Can't see it?  

Cutting across, we're approaching the station.

It's about 9 pm, my camera comes from El Cheapo, my fingers are freezing so those pictures kind of suck but I am sure you're getting the point.

Plunging view on my right leg.

 Left.

Dear Hubby scrapping snow and ice off the car.

The three other cars parked at the carshare station. Usually there are all gone, especially on a Friday night, this is one of the most popular stations in town, gotta book way in advance.

Yet tonight, all cars are home! Nobody is stupid enough to be running errands on such a day but hey...

Finally we take off. For a moment there, I thought I was going to have to push the car out of the patch... Thank Heavens the beast pulled out on its own!
Then we found  ourselves behind one of these snow removal machines, mostly Caterpillars and John Deers construction machines converted for the winter season.

Most of these guys are private construction companies, leeching out on public funds in exchange for poor service, half-done work, aggressive and dangerous behaviour on roads, sidewalks etc. Every year people get killed.

Finally we get to destination. And obviously, the street was cleaned already. Damned, before us even!!
Nice right? It warms the heart to see one's hard-earned tax dollars put to such neat use.
Imagine if those guys were to clean the lanes and paths!!! Well maybe you would be getting a better look at the two bicycle lanes right there in the picture...

And I am not even mentioning the segregated one cutting across right in front of the bus and going all the way downtown!
No doubt, winter cycling is such a treat!

Ok, I am being mean-spirited again. Once this mess melts away a little, it is possible that the streets regain some kind of composure. Like in mid-December:

Like these two above, granted you are willing to challenge yourself with some bicycle skating!

Winter cycling in Montreal: study

     

At the end of December, the Montreal Gazette featured an article about winter cycling. 

Huh? Well yeah. 

Seems like the topic of cycling has gained so much momentum that it has become worthy of being discussed in the Gazette in December!!

Ok, so what is this study all about?

Quick summary: 

The number of cyclists is big enough now, with many of them continuing cycling in the winter, that the city has a duty to start clearing out all bike lanes and paths, the same way they clear all streets, including those that barely see a rat's ass in a 24hr period. Why? Because what really bothers cyclists is not so much temperature or weather conditions than road conditions... Duh!! I discussed it in November here and here!!

All of this, we have known for a very long time, but the researchers are finding out now, or so it seems...

Extract:

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that the warmer cities retained a higher percentage of cyclists from summer to winter.
But Montreal’s winter cyclists seem less affected by temperature changes during the winter season than those in Vancouver and Portland. A smaller percentage of Montreal cyclists were discouraged from winter cycling because of drops in temperature, or intense precipitation.
“Montreal presents the lowest elasticities, suggesting that winter cyclists in Montreal are less sensitive to adverse weather conditions,” the study notes.
The big factor for Montrealers willing to cycle in winter seems to be not cold or precipitation, but road surface conditions.
“The surface condition is the main factor, and if we maintain good surface conditions throughout the winter we could improve these numbers dramatically,” said Miranda-Moreno.
He notes that European cities with similar winter weather to Montreal see cycling levels fall to only about 50 per cent of summer levels in winter.
“Cities can have four-season cycling. We don’t have to stop in winter. It doesn’t mean everybody wants to cycle in winter, but Sweden and Norway have very high retention of cycling rates in winter and we have similar weather.”

Full article here. 

It is not obvious but there is a full glassy ice coat right there

It may shock some but I am totally against this nonsense.

Pushing this stupid winter cycling agenda will only alienate everyone that does not cycle in the winter. 

Montreal is not Vancouver or Portland or wherever else. We do get big-ass snow falls and major-ass storms. Snow management is an absolute pain in the ass. It costs us fortunes every year. People fight over parking spot issues ("You motherfucker shoveled your snow on my car/spot/driveway!"). 

The city can never clear the streets fast enough to everyone's taste. And what about the sidewalks? Everybody and their mama who's ever slipped sues the city. Back alleys are not cleared. People sometimes spend up to 4 hours stuck in traffic during or right after snowstorms.

Budgets are tight. Plateau Mont-Royal's administration put up this website where you can play with the borough budget and see for yourself how much the different activities cost. Snow management is by far the biggie. People had to demonstrate this fall to ensure some swimming pools and other local services would remained open. The central administration is sucking the local boroughs dry by tightening theirs finances.

In that context, why should the local administration divert extremely rare funds from regular snow removal to clearing bike paths when only wackos ride in the winter? 

Whether or not what I just said is true, a lie or an insult is irrelevant. This is how the average Joe will perceive it. And we don't want that. Why? because it is hard enough to allocate valuable tax money to expand the cycling network without Joe balking. 

Between clearing out the paths in the winter for only 12% of cyclists to enjoy and building more paths for EVERYONE to enjoy during the regular season, the choice is easy. And right there, you've got the entire "regular" cyclists community agreeing with me. 

So it is us all, regular cyclists, plus all regular Joe's in their cars, against a tiny minority. It's ugly, it's petty and mean-spirited but as long as the pie's size is small, that's what it boils down to. The day the pie starts growing again and we've got an optimal cycling network in place, then yeah the city can spend money on winter cycling.

Until then, well.... Actually Plateau mayor, Luc Ferrandez, says it better:

The Plateau Mont Royal borough has been criticized for refusing to clear the Rachel St. bike path, which is supposed to be part of the Réseau Blanc. Plateau Mayor Luc Ferrandez says keeping that path clear costs about $150,000 per winter. The task is complicated by the fact that cars park beside the path if it is kept open in winter so there is nowhere to push the snow when clearing it.
Ferrandez said the Réseau Blanc is a nice idea that doesn’t really exist because the boroughs are not given resources by the central city to build and maintain a true network of safe paths. He said the central Ville Marie Borough gets extra snow clearing funding to keep the de Maisonneuve path clear (which despite this extra funding is filthy as ever). His borough would need not only more money for clearing, but money to build more and better designed bike routes to make the Réseau Blanc a reality.
“If there was (a Réseau Blanc) and I was stopping it by my stubborn cost-cutting habits, that would be one thing. But we don’t have a Réseau Blanc,” Ferrandez said.

As always, Luc Ferrandez is the man. Pr. Miranda Moreno rocks as well, but in this particular case, he needs to get real.

By night

   
 
On my way to pick up our Old Port skating rink passes I took these two pictures:

It was warmer that during the day so the snow had slowly started to melt down.
I saw maybe three persons riding around on the road, careful to avoid the path network.

Winter

     

Now, now, now...
I don't *hate* winter, what makes you think that? I really don't. I could do without it of course, like most people, but while it lasts, I have learned to live with it.
I do not have any problem with winter cycling either, nor do I have have any problem with those who practice it. It's just not for me.

Why?
It's hard enough dealing with sucky slushy or icy sidewalks

Well, actually it looks like they might get salted a bit more this year...

In any case, the roads do go through this phase for a long while before becoming slushy, then "cleared".

 

And as for the so-called "white network" cleaning, there you go!

Some people are totally satisfied with that, I am not.

As I do not have the guts yet to cycle in the middle of the roads on big arteries (I do it just fine on secondary streets but they are too disgusting for my comfort level), I'll save my bike and pants from all that slush and wait for spring.
Unless we have a dry winter, in which case I'll reconsider...

It's official!

     
Bike season ended today... For me at least!!
First real snow of the season...



I am not a practitioner of winter biking. Given my skill level, equipment level and experience of winter urban traffic, I find it highly irresponsible to cycle in Montreal's conditions. People simple do not see you and expect you even less. And the amount of clothing and gear (regular winter gear, NOT cycling gear) makes it too unpleasant, hauling it around, for me.

Mind you, the *real* official closure of bike season was earlier this month (on the 1st or 15th?) and cars have already moved into bike lanes for parking. And the city does NOT clean out the lanes that matter, i.e. the protected ones. Ah yeah, we have a so called "white network" which is essentially bullshit: they kind of clean the main downtown path on de Maisonneuve Blvd. That's it.
All the on road "lanes" will host major snow banks in no time and if anyone needs a mud bath, you're very welcome to hang in the slushy side of the road where the snowplows accumulate all the shit.

Not for me. But, it reminds me that I need to get those skate blades sharpened and those skis farted... The Old Montreal rink opens on December 3rd!