By Matthew Visser

years: two times in the winter and two times

in the summer. I was in Montreal last summer
visiting my long distance girlfriend and this time
I brought my bike with me. I came up with the
idea from the last summer I was there and saw
thousands of people riding their bikes throughout
the city. | was amazed at the amount of people and
how many bike lanes there were to support the
amount of cyclists. The Downtown of Montreal
has a figured 502-kilometer interconnected
cycling network, where Vancouver has a figured
400-kilometer interconnected cycling network.

The summer before I stayed in the Lower
Mainland and every weekend I made the effort,
with my friends, to bring our bikes to downtown
Vancouver and bike around, making new routes
every week and seeing new parts of Vancouver.

[= been to Montreal four times over the two

18

 

 

I loved these adventures and seeing new and
different parts of Vancouver made me appreciate
the city more and more.

But when I made my way on my bike
throughout the city of Montreal, I was amazed to
see how much more adapted and functional the
city is for cyclists to get around and not have the
fear of being hit by a car or being yelled at by
pedestrians and drivers, as 1 sometimes experience
biking not only in Vancouver but the rest of the
Lower Mainland as well.

Biking through Montreal gave me a better
idea of how the city is structured, how it looks,
and how to get a better understanding of how the
city and its people function together. I felt like
I was not a tourist but a Montrealer biking and
talking to fellow Montrealer’s that rode beside
me, biking throughout the giant city. I did not care
where I went because eventually I would hit water
and would have to turn back and find a new route
to ride and see more of why Montreal is one of the
most beautiful, multicultural cities in Canada.

Not only is cycling within Montreal easy to
get around, with its very well marked maps of
bike routes, there are also very easy routes to get

in and out of the city. I have not yet seen a well-
marked map within Vancouver to show me where
to go on my bike safely and efficiently. This could
be one of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s things he
could put on his agenda of things to look into if
he wants Vancouver to be the greenest city in the
world. And I don’t know about you, but I think
cycling is a lot greener than driving a car that will
sit in traffic longer Downtown before it actually
gets to its destination.

Now we who live in Vancouver have the
luxury of not having the winters that Montreal has,
but yet they have more cyclists riding the streets
as soon as the snow melts and until it becomes
too cold and the snow comes again to ride a bike.
Then why are the people of Vancouver not able to
produce the number of cyclists Montreal produces
all year round? We most definitely do not get the
weather that Montreal gets all year round and
from my own experience having neither a driver’s
license nor a car to drive, I have no problem riding
my bike all year round. I will take rain and wear
a rain suit, then wear multiple layers and walk in
the bitterly cold winters, which Montrealer’s do
everyday of the winter.

I feel that the people of the Lower Mainland
do not take full advantage of where they live
and what the area has to offer; especially for
something as easy as getting on a bike and riding
to someplace they have never been before. Lower
Mainlanders or Vancouverites live in one of the
most beautiful places in the world and to not put
the effort in to get on a bike and go and experience
this vast area of forest and coast is a crime. We
take where we live for granted and I think people
outside of the regular cyclist need to help out with
making Vancouver a bike friendly city. This is the
way people should be seeing new places they have
never been before, not by car where they only see
the new places through a window and do not get
to have the satisfaction of putting physical effort
to get to that place.

I give credit to Robertson for his efforts
in trying to have more bike lanes within the
downtown core, but I think the rush that
Robertson is in and what he wants, and the pace
that the construction is going at is only giving
cyclists a bad rap to drivers and making them
angry. The downtown is not yet ready for such
a massive change in its road system and also a
different kind of “driver” on the road with its own
special lanes.

If Vancouver is to become a greener city and
welcome cyclists to the roads that are used so
heavily by cars then it needs to look at other cities
that have done this so well. A city like Montreal
is a great example as it is North America’s capital
for cycling. So get on your bike and see what it
is like to bike to work or even cycle to school. I
promise you will see a new and exciting way of
getting around.