Vacation Thoughts: Montreal is Merveilleux
Months ago, one of my oldest friends, Michael from Germany, let me know he and his wife had decided not to move forward with plans to take a vacation in the United States and meet up with me. The reasons are exactly what you’d guess: disgust with the politics here and a niggling fear of having problems with customs. Instead, I suggested we meet up in Montreal, a city I hadn’t visited in over 30 years.
My grandfather was from Montreal and, growing up in New York, we visited nearly every year. I have fond memories of big dinners with my many cousins. But they’ve long since passed away or moved to other cities in Canada. So I was looking forward to getting reacquainted with a city that was once very familiar.
I found us an Airbnb in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, a neighborhood which came recommended by several of my urbanist friends. I also reached out to urban planner Zvi Leve, a contact via the Streetsblog Empire, and Patrick Murphy, of the fantastic “Oh the Urbanity!” YouTube channel. We all met for beers and they helped us plan out a great urbanist-focused séjour in Montreal.
The island-city of Montreal is the first place I saw a parking-protected bike lane (or really any protected lane). I remember as a kid seeing a bike lane nestled safely against the curb with a wall of parked cars protecting cyclists from moving traffic. It was such a revelation: why put bike lanes between the door zone and moving traffic when you can just move the parking lane over and protect cyclists!
Mayor Jean Doré back in the 1980s, was responsible for that after seeing them in the Netherlands. And in the past four or five decades, the city’s network of protected bike lanes, off-street paths, and car-free, pedestrianized streets has continued to grow. And it’s grown even more since the pandemic. Today, Montreal has about 150 miles of protected bike lanes, including its famous “Express Bike Network” or “REV,” with its super-wide lanes. Fifteen percent of trips in the central areas are now done by bike.
One of Patrick’s great videos.
And all that infrastructure, which protects all vulnerable road users, pays off.
Montreal (which also bans right on red citywide) averages between 15 and 20 pedestrian deaths per year. San Francisco averages between 16 and 24. But Montreal’s population is about 1.8 million. San Francisco’s population is less than half that.
Beyond the statistics, it also feels incredibly calm and safe to bike and walk in Montreal.
I took several trips on Montreal’s great BIXI bikeshare system, but Zvi also loaned us bikes and took us on an 11-mile ride clear across the island to Parc Frédéric-Back, a former quarry that the city is turning into an urban park. He made a Relive video of the trip (the young guy is Michael’s nephew Tony, who joined us).
Nearly the entire trip was on protected bike lanes or off-street paths. Montreal lives up to its reputation as being the most bike-friendly large city in North America. In the week we were there, I don’t think I ever felt stressed out or scared riding around or walking in the city the way I often do in Oakland and San Francisco. It’s because of the difference in infrastructure. I’m sure it happens, but I also didn’t see the kind of reckless driving that is so typical in San Francisco and Oakland. Plus, there was almost no litter. And as StreetFilm’s Clarence Eckerson points out in his video above, there is just a staggering amount of well-kept greenery, which makes the city quieter and more inviting. Montreal just seemed, for lack of a better way to put it, more together than the Bay Area.
It’s not that Montreal is perfect. They still have streets that are way too automobile focused. And they’ve also been slow to adopt protected intersections. I ended up getting honked at and running a red bicycle signal at an intersection on Avenue Laurier. The city has a big traffic light for cars and a very small bike signal off to the side that’s really easy to miss. The main traffic signal was green, so I went. At first I thought I made the error because I’m not familiar with the area, but as I watched several more cyclists made the same mistake. Fortunately, Montreal drivers seemed accustomed to checking for cyclists before turning right, probably because of all the protected bike lanes. And the city had posters all around that section of Laurier about an upcoming project to upgrade the streets; it seems as if Montreal’s planners are on it.
Of course, I didn’t spend the whole trip doing urbanist things. We also had great food, saw some of the historical sights, and went for a hike up Mount Royal. But for people looking for an urbanist vacation from the Bay Area who don’t want to fly all the way to Europe, Montreal did not disappoint. I know I’ll be back.
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