Coming soon: What I learned in Montréal

On Car-Free Day, September 22, 2010, Ottawa City Hall entertained a panel presentation on cycling in Europe. Thirteen individuals from Ottawa, including (in order pictured below) City of Ottawa cycling coordinator Robin Bennett, Transportation Planning Manager Vivi Chi, Rideau-Rockcliffe councillor Jacques Legendre, National Capital Commission CEO Marie Lemay, and Gatineau mayor Marc Bureau.

The five were part of a 13-person contingent from the National Capital Region who attended the Velo-City conference in Copenhagen earlier this year (out of 33 total from Canada).

They visited four cities in Europe before and during the conference, and on the 22nd presented their findings to interested residents of Ottawa. Their talk is well documented in blog entries and a flickr photostream of the event. However, it reminded me that I have a similar collection to share.

On a Saturday in May 2010, I went with the CCOC's Meg McCallum on a day trip to check out Montreal's transit and cycling infrastructure. While I was born in Montreal, I haven't been there since I was a child, so I'd be seeing everything there with fresh eyes.

There were a few things in particular we wanted to look at for their applicability to Ottawa: subway stations (depth, design, and decoration), the Bixi bike rental system, and segregated bike lanes. We ended up seeing all that and more, which I present in a special 8-part* series: "What I learned in Montréal"

• Part 1: Chinatown
• Part 2: Bike lanes (segregated vs. sharrows)
• Part 3: Métro station function
• Part 4: Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
• Part 5: Métro station look and feel
• Part 6: Bikes on Trains
• Part 7: Bixis and Bike Parking
• Part 8: Civic aesthetic

Look out for the series over the next three to four weeks, beginning Monday.

I'll post either a Montréal entry or a regular entry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the series is done (after which I'll revert to the regular schedule of new posts on Mondays and Fridays). As with my other series, I'll add links in this introductory post to help with navigation as the posts go up.

(*While I've got the series mostly laid out, there may be some changes to the order and number of entries as they are posted.)