City bike lane network keeps growing
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Quebec City cyclists now have an additional 12.7 kilometres of bike paths to enjoy. The Ville de Québec has added six new sections to its VivaCité* bike path network this summer – the Pente-Douce corridor (from Rue Marie-de-l’Incarnation to Chemin Ste-Foy) and the Ma- rie-de-l’Incarnation corridor (from Rue Guyart to Côte de la Pente-Douce) in Montcalm, the 3e Avenue Ouest/52e Rue corridor (76e Ave Ouest to 4e Ave Est) in Limoilou, the Du Pont corridor in Saint-Roch (from Rue du Prince-Édouard to Rue Saint-Vallier Est), the Quai Saint-André corridor in Petit-Champlain (Rue Saint- Pierre to Rue Dalhousie) and the Neilson corridor in Sainte-Foy (Rue de Marly to Rue André-Giroux).
Two existing bike lanes have also been spruced up with improved lane marking, additional protective barriers and traffic lights adapted for cyclists; they are the Boul. Laurier corridor near the Université Laval campus (Rue des Gouverneurs to Rue Marguerite-Bourgeoys) and the Chemin Sainte-Foy corridor in Montcalm (from Ave. de Vimy to Ave. des Érables).
Safety improvements to an additional corridor (the 4e Ave corridor in Limoilou) should be completed by mid-November, city officials said.
The additional corridors essentially triple the size of the bike lane network, modelled after Montreal’s Réseau Express Vélo, which began with six km of lanes in 2023.
Coun. Pierre-Luc Lachance, member of the executive committee responsible for mobility and road safety, estimated the cost of this year’s improvements at $4.8 million, although the exact cost won’t be known until all upgrades are com- pleted.
Lachance said the bike lanes are “part of the city’s big ten- year plan for mobility,” which includes a 150-km network serving 85 per cent of the city’s neighbourhoods by 2035.
“We are in a new dynamic to make biking a means of trans- portation and not just a way to have fun,” said Lachance, himself an avid cyclist. “Having separated bike lanes makes a huge difference in terms of safety – there are more families with kids taking their bikes to school. With every new installation, we see behaviour change; when we put in the corridor on Chemin Ste-Foy, the average speed of the cars went down by a few kilometres per hour, and that’s a big deal. If we want to encourage people to walk or take their bikes, it has to be safe.”
Over the next few months, the city is planning public consultations about the future of the bike path network. The consultation calendar is available at ville.quebec.qc.ca/citoyens/participation-citoyenne/activites/index.aspx.
*Editor’s Note: The version of this article published in the print edition of the Oct. 9 QCT refers to the bike network by its previous name, Vélo Cité. City officials announced the new name (VivaCité) on Oct. 8 after the print edition went to press.