At the end of the lane - part 3

 
Last part of the sucky bike-lane expedition.

Contrary to appearances, I am very in favour of the Occupy Montreal's ideas. I disagree on the vector or the vehicle chosen to bring those wishes into reality. Obviously, this movement has nothing to do with Mai 68, la Révolution Tranquille or the Arab Spring and has not intention to become either.
Yet, you do not fight a system from the outside. Either you play the game from within or you die. So far, as far as Montreal is concerned, the movement has died, or so it seems.

More pictures.

The bike lane goes around the square and comes back towards home. Which it what I did, disappointed.

2012 will be a big election year for the province. We'll see who managed and  who failed to convince who, and whether this protest movement can translate into anything concrete politically, i.e. whether these ideas ever reached beyond the clique of like-minded people.

At the end of the lane - part 2

 
Second part of my adventures on the sucky bike lane.
I am one of those who think cycling is a political act; it is a statement that positions the cyclist socially, geographically, psychologically and politically.
In this case however, I was proven wrong. I was all excited at the idea of what I was going to find at the end of the lane. Alas!
At the end of that lane was the Occupy Montreal encampment.

Oh boy! I am not sure of what I expected, but this had to be the least political thing I have attended in years. Mind you, it was on purpose. The whole was specifically put forward as an apolitical movement.
Results? Nada. Oh yeah, they got kicked out from the place and that's it. I heard they relocated somewhere else... Whatever.

Any lessons to be learned from this? Maybe this one: Nothing comes out of non-political movements. My take of course.
A few pictures.

 

At the end of the lane

   
This a lane that I rarely take.
Even though it is the second closest to where I live, I kind of dread having to ride on it.
Can you see why?

Please meet the Viger St. bike lane. Nice design right?
Oh no, not the segregated area, where the dude is walking; this is a footway, not a lane. The lane is right outside of it, between the cars and the blocks.
See it now? Well, me neither!
Why? because bike lanes are just that, nothing but f$@!ing painting on the road and nothing else and, as such, get erased over time due to, among other things, cars rolling on it over and over.

Of course, some portions of it are in a better state, it is not Irak (yet)... Oh, there it is, the "lane" re-appeared!

Not Irak (yet) but slowly and surely getting there! Anyways...
Does it matter? Well maybe not as the "lane" disappears again! Where?  Under the f%$#ing cars' wheels...

Ah, there it is again!

Well, kind of... more like the anemic remainders of it!

And on the way back, on McGill?
Well, if cars can roll on the bike lane with full impunity... 

 

Why not squarely  park in it?

Does it show that I prefer paths than lanes? Ahem...

Well, the real question is rather, what was I doing on that road, if I hate it so much, and what is the title "At the end of the lane" all about?

Mystère, mystère...
To be continued, la suite, au prochain épisode!

Undress Peter to dress Paul - part 2

  
Additional local examples.

This  portion of the Berri Street is wide enough to welcome a cycle path: it is three lane wide each side for a portion of road in which traffic is not that intense and should not anyways.

Yet, nobody was brave enough to carve out a cycle path in this giant six lane portion of road located smack downtown. So they took off the sidewalk.

To the point that this stupidly created pedestrians/cyclists conflict caused the death of one cyclist a few years ago.

I hope it is clear to all that pedestrians don't have much choice but walk on the cycle path, which is dangerous as, right before this section, cyclists come down quite a steep slope.

Undress Peter to dress Paul

 
Actually, I found out pretty late in my life that the proper expression in English is "Robbing Peter to pay Paul". In French you say déshabiller Pierre pour habiller Paul which I transglibberished into English for this post's title.
Just like a lot of Montrealers I find Franglish a lot more fun than plain English or plain French. Go figure!

Yet the very issue underlined by these sayings cannot be better illustrated than by this little video. It was posted on Copenhaganize.com and was sent from a Romanian cyclist, illustrating the recently "completed" Bucharest cycle tracks.

This, below, is what happen when dumb-asses are in control:



They meet up and sit around wondering how they can deliver the freaking cycle tracks folks are asking, without affecting the current status quo. Do not affect motor traffic. Do not touch the automobile circulation.
In order to achieve said cycle network, they simply take the space away from pedestrians, who are supposed to just shut up and somehow accept this nonsense.

Bullshit like that only achieves one thing: pitching pedestrians against cyclists and vice versa.

We have our very own gems, among which, the infamous Place des Arts oh-so-smart stupid design

As well as several other for which I unfortunately do not have any picture.
We must stop compromising on such half-assed infrastructures and start demanding respect for both cyclists and pedestrians.
Urban planners around the world: please grow the balls to face motorists and take away from them what has been confiscated from all of us, i.e. the public space.

In the Ghetto

 
In the last post, I had quite an outburst of vulgarities and curses.
Hum, well I am not apologizing. I admit it was not very elegant but hey, this not a column here, it's a blog, a private one at that. And the issue was quite serious. I am totally bewildered by the level of incompetency we have to put up with sometimes.

Well, this post will be a lighter and nicer one. A photo-balade through the Ghetto.
When I was still in U, this used to be the name of the residential area around the McGill campus. That, of course, was in the days before the regressive ban on cycling around campus.

All photos random. Taken around 3 pm, outside of rush hour. Comments to a minimum. All right, let's start!


University St. corner with Milton.

University St. bike path, going down towards Sherbrooke St.
Notice the shitty road quality. This city is crumbling apart really.

Bixi station on Milton St.

Corner of Milton St. and Parc Av.

The Montreal Urban Ecology Centre.

Looking onto Prince Arthur St. (I think) westward.

This below is the reason why painted lanes are absolute bullshit.

Another Bixi station, only one or two blocks away from the one above.

A serie of random shots in the area, i.e. I can't remember where!

This lane below branches out from the renovated Des Pins interchange but I never figured out where to take it!

Finally, back to McGill's Eastern entrance, corner of Milton St. and University St., exactly where I had the car in bike-box incident.



Make no mistake...

Even though it looks like they relate to the construction work next to it, the real point of the wire fence is to prevent/discourage cycling through campus...