By Estelle Taylor, Harmony Foundation, Vancouver, BC

Title of Project
Bicycle Crossings.

Title of Group
Le Monde à Bicyclette.

Goal of Project
To give cyclists a way to cross from Montreal to the South Shore as well as from the South Shore into Montreal.

Number of People-hours Involved
Thousands of hours, on the bridge accesses projects alone. Most of the work was done by a core group of a few volunteers.

Length of Project
About 10 years, all told.

Budget
No specific budget for the project; Le Monde’s operating budget has varied widely over the years, peaking at $48,000.

Partnerships Involved
None.

Narrative
In 1999, Bicycling magazine named Montreal the best cycling city in North America, because of things like its extensive bike paths, its thousands of convenient bike parking racks, its regulation requiring all new buildings to have a bike rack, and the cycling culture in the city(170,000 people in the greater Montreal area use their bicycles as their main means of transport). Montreal has Le Monde à Bicyclette to thank for that award.

In 1975, remembers Robert Silverman, Le Monde's cofounder and president, there were no cycling facilities. He and other cycling enthusiasts got together to change that. For 25 years, Le Monde has fought tirelessly to promote and secure facilities for cycling. It won the right for cyclists to bring bikes on the subway, it worked to have bike paths created. But its greatest achievement, says Silverman, was getting cyclists access to the South Shore. The Champlain and Victoria bridges and the Bridge\Tunnel Hippolyte Lafontaine didn't' accept bikes. Neither did the River- crossing subway system. On the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, cyclists could try to illegally use the pedestrian sidewalk. Other than that, cyclists were out ofluck.

Le Monde thought this was unacceptable. At first they staged “cyclodramas” to draw people's attention to the issue. Once, the group attempted to fly across the water with fake wings on their bikes. Once they put their bikes in a canoe and tried to paddle across the water. One Easter Sunday they even had a group member dress as Moses and the rest of the group of 40 stood at the water, asking Moses to part the water for them so that they could cross. Such dramas drew great media attention and public awareness. But they didn't get the group access to the South Shore.

So Le Monde changed its tactics, and began working to get letters of support and resolutions of support from municipalities near the St. Lawrence River south of Montreal. It eventually got resolutions passed in support of a landfill connection from Notre-Dame Island to the South Shore, from all 14 South Shore municipalities as well as from the City of Montreal, Verdun and La Salle on Montreal Island. In addition, Le Monde à Bicyclette solicited and received letters of support for this River-crossing project from 18 provincial MNAs and 17 federal MPs in the region.

Still the Liberal Provincial government stalled on committing 300,000$ for their share of the project.- Montreal had agreed to pay their share of the same sum- There was an election going on at the time and we threatened to call a press conference to expose the Minister of Leisure's stonewalling on this urgent question. The next day, the Minister, Picard, announced the acceptance and their funding for the 600,000$ landfill project.

Montreal, and then the provincial government thus, in 1989, agreed to give cyclists inter-riverbank access. A landfill was built exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians. In an official ceremony, this vital "missing link" for bicylists and pedestrians was opened in May, 1990. From that day on bicylists could cross the River in dignity and safety in a very agreable and scenic fashion. Hundreds of thousands do so in the season.

Further to the West, at the Champlain Bridge, access was possible but dangerous as bicyclists were adjacent to speeding cars on the North end of the Champlain Bridge on a tiny sidewalk. Again, we solicited and obtained resolutions of support from adjacent municipalities and from members of parliament in the region. We also dressed up as rabbits several times to illustrate that the bicycling access to the bridge was so rutted and narrow that only rabbits could use it. In 1996, the Federal authorities managing the Champlain Bridge built a cement fence separating the bicyclists and pedestrians from the speeding cars and the City of Verdun constructed a scenic bicycle path that serves as an access to the North side of the bridge. Another victory for Le Monde à Bicyclette.

Both these lengthy and difficult victories were organized and conducted by Le Monde's exceptionally competent coordinator , Le Monde's co-founder, Claire Morisette. Thanks Claire! And, in addition there's a privately run pedestrian/cyclist ferry that takes people across the river further to the East near the Tunnel/Bridge.

Those wins required thousands of hours of effort, over many years. The struggle really consumed the small core group of activists. It was our life,” recalls Silverman. “We were boiling mad all the time.” To fund its activities, the group got some government grants and sold t-shirts and calendars. The group's budget has never been big, reaching a peak of $48,000 several years ago to fund the group's co-ordinator, newspapers of the same name and many activities. Over the past few years, the group has been much smaller largely because it has won a good part of its initial cycling demands and there are many bicycling commuting facilities. Cyclofrustration, the motor of the group, has been significantly reduced.

The greatest roadblock to these changes that the group encountered was government opposition at the time, based on irrational resistance to see the world in a different way, says Silverman. Twenty-five years later, government attitudes have changed. The current mayor is himself a cyclist . And today it's much easier to get around town by bike, as there are 200 km of bike paths in the city alone, substantial bicycle parking, inter River access and access to the subway system and , in a limited fashion, to two commuter train lines.

"But all that hasn't changed Montreal bicycling conditions enough" , said Silverman. So, while we feel good about the accomplishments Le Monde has had, he says he's never satisfied. We wants to extend bike access on the commuter train and get bike racks on buses and want extensive traffic calming and drastic car reductions in Montreal. How does he keep going? “Cyclofrustrations - That's the fuel for Le Monde's energy as it is for bicycle advocates throughout the world.”

Estelle Taylor: estelle@axion.net