The controversial bike path on Terrebonne Street in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough will be removed.
On Tuesday, all councillors except for the borough mayor voted in favour of removing the bike path as soon as possible.
“I will admit that I am extremely very disappointed and sad about this. I was very proud, I am very proud of this bike path,” borough mayor Sue Montgomery said.
“I loved watching the kids riding to school, laughing and riding with their parents.”
Montgomery lamented that councillors are voting against keeping the lane in place.
“Mr. Arsenault, Mr. McQueen and Madame Popeanu ran on a platform for more bike paths. Was that for just for show?” Montgomery said.
Councillors argued they are not against sustainable mobility but denounced poor planning by the borough.
“We’ve got to find a way to make sustainable mobility work for everyone. It can’t be imposed with no consultation,” said councillor Marvin Rotrand.
Although it gained the praise of cycling advocates and cyclists in the area, the bike path was hotly disputed after several parking spots were removed in its favour.
A nearby church was affected and several parents who dropped their children off to a nearby school complained.
Residents also protested the lack of parking, saying they were forced to park several blocks away from their homes.
“There is also going to be another motion that’s going to propose a process and a procedure on how to study future situations,” said councillor Lionel Perez.
“At the end of the day, NDGers are the ones who are losing out and I believe that had this been dealt with much earlier, we wouldn’t be here. It is what it is, everyone has the right to express themselves,” Perez explained.
READ MORE: Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce creates more pedestrian walkways, shared streets
The bike path was installed as a relief measure during the height of the novel coronavirus crisis along with sanitary corridors across the borough.
It was voted unanimously by borough council at the end of June.
The project temporary and was scheduled to be removed in late October.
— With files from Global’s Brayden Jagger-Haines
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