New Vaudreuil-Dorion bike paths cause confusion for motorists

Some new bike paths recently painted in Vaudreuil-Dorion are raising eyebrows.

A few new two-lane bike paths on residential streets took space away from car traffic. In some cases, like at the corner of Emile-Bouchard and Toe Blake, a lane devoted to cars wasn’t even wide enough to fit half of one.

“It’s dangerous for bikes and it’s dangerous for cars. You don’t know which side you’re going to go on,” one cyclist told Global News.

Pierre Seguin, a mayoral candidate in Vaudreuil in the upcoming election, accused the city of mismanagement.

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“It’s ridiculous and it’s a very good example of a lack of planification. How could they have painted the lines the way they did in the middle of the street? It doesn’t make any sense,” Seguin told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's ridiculous and it's a very good example of a lack of planification. How could they have painted the lines the way they did in the middle of the street? It doesn't make any sense," Seguin told Global News.

Vaudreuil-Dorion mayor Guy Pilon admitted there was a lack of co-ordination.

“The problem is we have two different contractors. One is to make the lines for the bike path, the other is to make the lines for the street. The synchronization between both didn’t work,” said Pilon.

Pictures of some of the problematic roads were shared on Facebook, along with comments insulting the city. Pilon didn’t appreciate the negative comments.

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“Before speaking about stupidity, incompetence and stuff like that, go back to your own life and check if every time you make a mistake people are jumping on you saying they’re going to fire you. Maybe people need to go back to their own life, like I said, and not react so big for a line,” he told Global News.

The mayor said he was upset when he learned about the problem, and admits it wasn’t the city’s best work. He admits it could take days or weeks to properly erase and re-paint the lines, but he said he asked the contractor to paint over the now-stray centre lines in the meantime.

After his interview with Global News, the line in the middle of Toe Blake Street had been painted over.