Should Sherbrooke Street get its own bike lane?

As the Plante administration looks to ramp up the city's network of bike paths, environmental and cycling advocates are pushing for protected lanes in both directions on Sherbrooke Street.

They envision a bike path extending from Montreal West all the way to Highway 25 in the city's east end.

"The main reason people aren't cycling today is because they don't feel safe sharing the road with motor vehicles," Dan Lambert, spokesperson for the Montreal Bike Coalition, said in an interview.

"They want protected bike paths."

Sherbrooke Street is the obvious choice, he said, as the city moves forward with plans to construct an express bike path network — a network that, comprised of new and upgraded paths, would provide year-round bike routes through the city.

The express network, known as the Réseau Express Vélo in French, was part of Mayor Valérie Plante's 2017 election campaign. Details are expected to be announced next spring.

City spokesperson Youssef Amane told CBC News on Wednesday that Sherbrooke Street is being considered for the network. 

But he cautioned that, at this stage, "it's too early to tell" what planners will decide.

"We are not closing any door on the project, but we also have to recognize the important needs that exist for all road users, and that includes cyclists and public transit users," he said.

Sherbrooke Street is a priority, consultation finds

When the city hosted consultations on the express network this fall, Sherbrooke Street was selected as a priority, as it is a natural east-west route, Lambert said.

He said roughly 4,000 cyclists use the route daily even though there's no bike infrastructure in place.

The 18-kilometre stretch of protected bike lanes would run parallel to the sidewalks, about a metre to a metre-and-a-half wide on either side of the street.

But Lambert said it could be adapted to different sections of the busy arterial road.

For example, the reserved bus lane in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, which eliminates curbside parking during rush hour, would continue to operate as normal if the city turned the smaller of the two traffic lanes into protected bike paths.

Ultimately, he said, it would be up to each municipality to decide how to integrate the protected lanes into its section of the road.

Safe alternative to de Maisonneuve

The protected lanes on Sherbrooke Street would prevent cyclists from zipping in and out of traffic, Lambert told CBC Montreal's Homerun earlier this week.

Providing east and west routes on either side of the street, he said, would also be different than the "fundamentally flawed" bidirectional bike path found on de Maisonneuve Boulevard that gets about 8,500 cyclists a day.

Those crowds, coupled with design flaws, are why many cyclists opt for alternative routes, he said.

Vélo Québec's director general, Suzanne Lareau, said her organization was given the mandate to prepare a bike plan for downtown.

Sherbrooke Street was identified as a priority, she told Radio Canada, as it and Ontario Street are already used heavily by cyclists "despite the fact that it is very unpleasant to circulate."

The Conseil régional de l'environnement (CRE), an environmental group, also supports the effort to install a protected bike path on the busy street.

The organization's transport manager, Tania Gonzalez, said Sherbrooke would provide a direct link between downtown and residential neighbourhoods.

Elected officials and urban planners, she said, are hesitant to remove parking as it is a "very emotional issue." However, she said this proposed bike path is a "great opportunity to rethink Sherbrooke."

Coun. Lionel Perez, leader of the city's opposition, told CBC News that the city has to look at mobility "as a whole." That means officials must consider the effects on merchants, parking and the reserved bus lane.

"We have to look at the impact and the consequences," he said. "I think it is something that has to be studied and, if it is justified, then we should seriously consider it."