Candidates promise better cycling in NDG
Residents concerned about poor road conditions and chaotic traffic flow
Municipal candidates in Montreal's NDG neighbourhood are promising to improve cycling conditions in the district — beginning with fixing the chaotic flow of traffic around the Vendôme metro station.
The NDG Cyclist and Pedestrian Association invited mayoralty candidates in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough to a meeting yesterday, to discuss cycling issues in the mostly residential neighbourhood.
Poor road conditions, dangerous intersections and a confusing network of paths were some of the problems the group would like to see fixed, said Rachel Michie, a member of the NDG Cyclist and Pedestrian Association.
"We'd like better infrastructure. We'd like segregated, safe paths. Lines painted on roads are not enough," said Michie.
Michie said traffic headaches caused by construction of the new superhospital next to Vendôme metro is making the commute downtown even more dangerous for cyclists.
"They have no secure way of going downtown. In front of Vendôme, it's very dangerous. And we have sections of the De Maisonneuve path – the most western section – where it's really hard to ride on," said Michie.
Here's are some of the promises made by candidates at the meeting:
- Russell Copeman of Coalition Montreal said if elected his party would add 400 kilometres of new bike paths.
- Kevin Copps said Équipe Denis Coderre would build 50 kilometres of bike paths every year.
- Projet Montreal's Michael Simkin said he'd like to extend the protected bike paths found in other boroughs to CDN/NDG.
- Andrew Ross of Groupe Melanie Joly said his party would focus on making these paths safer for children.
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