Bike path could stay open through winter

“Certainly in principle and at first blush the idea of having a four-season bike path makes sense,” Mayor Peter Trent said when asked during last Monday’s city council meeting. “I was always curious as to why in Montreal it was four-seasons and in Westmount it was three. But — and here’s the but — the devil’s in the details, and a prior council must have had their reasons to close it for the winter. “I gather from an article in a paper which shall not be mentioned that rather than closing it on the 15th of November, we’re now going to only close it when there’s a large snowfall, which could even bring us into January. “We’re five out of nine on this council that are either brand new or retreads, and so it’s going to take us a little while to look at it and find out what the reasons were as to why we closed it down, and I’m sure there are a lot reasons with regard to snow removal operations and things of that kind. So I’m not promising anything, but we will look into it.”

Offering a counterpoint, city councillor Cynthia Lulham said she had heard complaints from residents on de Maisonneuve Boulevard who say they cannot get in or out of their driveways for the bike traffic. The cyclists aren’t respecting the stop signs, and they tend to speed, she said of the complaints. “For 20 years we’ve wanted people to ride their bikes," Lulham said. "It’s a good thing people are riding their bikes, and I’m happy they’re riding their bikes. But I think we need to look at our bicycle path and see how we can redesign it to make it safer and to make the cyclists more aware of their need to stop.”

Despite these conditions, Lulham said she would be in favour of Westmount’s bike path being open all year.