Vélo Fantôme Québec marks its 10th anniversary with human chain in Montreal

Vélo Fantôme Québec marked a sombre anniversary on Saturday. It’s been 10 years since the first ghost bike was erected in Montreal and a decade of action pushing for safer streets for cyclists.

“In these 10 years that we’ve existed, there have been countless promises and yet no solid infrastructure has been installed on Park Avenue,” said Vélo Fantôme Québec spokesperson Séverine Le Page.

Around 100 people gathered at the corner of Park Avenue and Mont-Royal to create a safe corridor for cyclists.

“We’re going to use our bodies as a barrier,” Le Page said. “There is no permanent infrastructure today so we are the barrier to allow cyclists who want to travel to do so safely.”

A ghost bike is a memorial left to mark where a cyclist was killed in transit.

The human chain spanned 1.1 km along Park between two ghost bikes. The configuration of Park is largely identical to what has existed since the 1950s and safe cycling organizations are demanding changes.

“We need to have something more structural and permanent and so we’re really working on that,” said Mile-End city Coun. Mary Plourde, who adds that Projet Montreal is working hard to make permanent changes to the busy thoroughfare.

“We’ve been asking Quebec for quite a while right now to have some photo radar,” Plourde said.

For now, she said cyclists haven’t had a positive response from the provincial government but as climate change becomes more relevant, she is optimistic.

Some participants on Saturday acknowledged people don’t like change but said in the case of bike paths, it is always a positive change.

“Once you built it, people will come,” said Antoine Fillion, an avid cyclist. “Of course, there are people who are afraid of change, but once it’s there, nobody would take it back.”

The city of Montréal and its partners committed to a vision zero action plan in 2019. The goal is to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads to zero by 2040.