#dnsbikegang

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Bonjour Montreal

I've been in Montreal since Sunday for the 5th World Environmental Education Congress. I'm here for a nice little mini-vacation. (That kinda shows what level eco-nerd I am.)

I'm not alone, I'm here with my sweet heart... my bike! VIA makes it supper easy for you to take on the train. You can just hand it to the baggage guys, but they recommend you put in in their free bike boxes- you have to remove your pedals and handle bars to fit it in, and I actually went out and bough my very own 13 and 15 mm wrenches to do this!

(I didn't bring my camera, so I googled "montreal bike lanes" and somehow google gave me this photo... FAIL)

Montreal is a bike friendly city, with a well established bike-line system laid by bike activists back in the 70's. THANK YOU GUYS! I'm on Rene-Lavesque, which has amazing double bike lanes that have concrete barriers on each side. It feels strange being so safe on a road. For bicyclists in Toronto in 30 years, I promise to be a more proactive bike activist.


Montreal also loves bike style, and this week's edition of THE HOUR has a tattooed, fashionably punky babe on the cover, promoting BIXI Bikes. Something tells me the stylist of this shoot saw photos of our show. Now, my bike is supper happy I didn't know about this before I came to Montreal, or I may not have brought her on the trip. When I learned about this I couldn't believe it- as of today, Montreal has 3,000 high-tech bikes ready for shared city use. They are one of the most well built, indistructable bikes with encased chains and nitrogen filled tires. Day membership passes only cost $5. Year memberships are $78. There is a station right outside my hotel, and I salivated over them last night.

Congratulations on kicking Toronto's butt Montreal!

And now... one of my favorite French/Montreal/Bike videos...

1 comment:

Irene said...

wow wow wow.... great post meg but now I want to move to Montreal.... Double bike lanes with concrete barriers??? What is that?!?
The future?
So jealous.