Joel Ceausu – The Suburban LJI Reporter
“I love my bike” said NDG resident Jay Brian. “But do I need a bike path on every street?”
That was one of the points brought up Wednesday afternoon when a group of NDG residents opposed to the CDN-NDG borough plan to install a two-way bike path on Terrebonne gathered at William Hurst park to announce the launch of a petition and demonstration on Thursday night.
Next summer Terrebonne will be transformed into two one-way roads from Cavendish heading east toward Girouard and west towards Belmore, eliminating parking on the north side. It’s seen as a better version of the previous plan to install a bike path on Terrebone which happened in 2020 as a pilot project and scrapped prematurely due to opposition from many residents.
The new plan is one of three recommendations in an expert report the borough commissioned last year at a cost of $150,000. The borough is holding an information session Thursday night at the Benny Library, the administration cautioning opponents that the session is only to provide information and is not a consult. Therein lies the problem say many opponents.
Residents spoke of the number of schools, church, seniors’ residence, and elderly neighbors having difficulty walking long distances to their cars, or nurses providing home care spending valuable time that could be served providing care for patients spent instead on jockeying for parking spots.
Terrebonne resident Marty Kiely questioned whether the move would harm his property values, his wife Yvonne noting they already have to compete for parking spaces with students from Concordia. A Melrose resident spoke of difficulty she has finding parking on the street, and wonders what will happen once all the cars from Terrebonne move to side streets to park.
“We’re not against bike paths” said Irwin Rapoport who organized residents on social media in anticipation of Thursday’s session and is hoping to have a major turnout for a demonstration before the meeting. He doesn’t accept that it’s a done deal. “I hope that they’re going to see the opposition, they’re going to hear our voices” he told reporters.
Bryan told The Suburban he can’t understand “how the administration can do this again and again, knowing that so many people are opposed to this.”
Snowdon councillor Sonny Moroz lambasted the administration for moving ahead without consulting the residents. “They’re using downtown money” he said, to install the path “while there are people whose opinions (are known but) not included in the plan” and there are other routes in more need of securing for active transit. “I want more bike paths in CDN-NDG” said Moroz, “and I want improved road infrastructure that makes it safer for all users, as soon as possible… The best way to defeat NIMBYism” he told reporters, “is to listen to people.”
The info session will take place at 7 pm Thursday at the Centre culturel de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (Benny Library) 6400 Monkland. See a summary of the plan and read the technical report (in French) at https://montreal.ca/en/article…