ring ring....

[Oyez Oyez]

ring ring....

par Oyez Oyez » Mer Déc 17, 2008 1:00 pm

The Mont Royal ring is good to go! If we can believe city councillors, the 10-kilometre crushed gravel path to be shared by cyclists and pedestrians will be completed by 2011. It seems far away, but considering this ring was proposed almost 20 years ago, I suppose we can wait a little longer.

[img:333:440]http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2007/05/08/1178652945_6495.jpg[/img]

The path will loop from the base of the east end's Olmstead Path up
toward Beaver Lake, then connect to the Mount Royal cemetary, across to
run parallel with Cote-des-Neiges, through Université de Montréal's
campus, and back through Outremont to connect back to Parc and des
Pins. The construction will be done in six stages - check out details of each in yesterday's .

Ah, this will be good. Right now the Olmstead path is a nightmare for cyclists, to the point where on weekend afternoons you may as well avoid it entirely. (The picture on the left doesn't reveal this, but you all know what I'm talking about.) And access to the mountain from the west side has always been lacking; that this path will provide bike and pedestrian access from a few streets is very welcome!

True, the crushed gravel path it's not exactly friendliest to road bikes or racers. But the speed demons among us should be looking elsewhere for kicks, and besides, who wants to ruin the pristine getaway with a painted bike path? Leave the Marinoni at home, clean your bike off after the ride, and things will be just fine.

Also true is that this path could add to congestion on the mountain. But it could also channel some of the pent-up frustrations of mountain-going cyclists (including mountain bikers), and disperse the congestion so that people are happier and the mountain is just as good. Even Les Amis de la Montagne told the Gazette that they were "generally happy about the whole thing" - and they have been working closely on this plan since it was first proposed in 1990. I hope to speak with them later next week to find out more from their side of things.

The Gazette has made this little 'comment ' piece to hear what readers have to say. (But of course you can comment with us, too... similar people will likely be reading, anyway...)

- KE


Siyonara, Olmstead Path - we're off to the mountain ring. Photo by Marcos Townsend for the Boston Globe.


Author: Kate Molleson
Category: Around townInfrastructure
Publish Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:30:00 GMT

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