You make a great point about the suburbs having an outsized influence on city politics when they're allowed to be part of the city government. The Greater Toronto Area would benefit from better "sized" policies regarding the actual city of Toronto, but the conservative suburban voters have forced their fears onto the area writ large.
The best model for this I'm aware of is Paris. They have a powerful mayor, and a moderately strong region; Paris is heavy on cycling now, but coordination about transit seems strong despite some grouching about commuter parking and highway removal, and different political parties involved.
There was a similar issue here in Stockholm when we added the "congestion tax", which means drivers have to pay to drive into the city. The people within that tax area were mostly in favour while outside the majority voted against. The city itself decided to go through with it despite so many voting against and do a "trial run". After that it became more popular, and it's now a source of income used for infrastructure like the new expansions of the metro.
Vancouver did pretty well pioneering bike infrastructure in 2010 but has slowed down drastically since then. There are infrastructure in neighbourhoods that are absolute standouts but there hasn't been anything new I feel like.
@@hanktsui2000 That would be our A Better City party at work. "Bikes? We don't need no stinkin' bikes!" With any luck they'll get the boot next election.
Hello👋🏻 A person from munich here. We have a similar situation here, where the number of cars increses faster than the growth of the city, whilst overall traffic numbers are decreasing. It's very interesting to hear that this is also happening elsewhere. I was told that this is mostly the case because there are more delivery trucks and car sharing services, but it would be interesting to learn more about this dynamic. The most important thing is, however, that cycling is still going strong and is increasing year over year!
Interesting. The New York Times recently had a piece about how ride-sharing programs have flooded the streets of New York with more cars than ever, but people don't seem to realize the cause. This might account for the increases everywhere.
It's not just Munich; car usage in Germany is way _down_, while car ownership keeps increasing. Cycling on the other hand is way up since the pandemic (we have now clearly surpassed Denmark by mileage per capita).
8:30 Toronto Was amalgamated to allow suburbians to overrule initiatives that urbanists want. So it makes sense that having smaller jurisdictions allows better bike infrastructure.
Yeah, suburbanites demand car-centric infrastructure because they live in car-centric neighborhoods. Urbanites demand walkability because everything is close by and they are sick of their streets turning into car sewers. Amalgamation was a disaster for urbanism in Toronto.
Toronto was amalgamated to allow the city to get the pretentious title of the largest city in Canada sprawling 130 km away . Toronto has no identity , no soul . All infrastructures are falling apart ( subway, sewage , roads ) . All mayors left with scandals . USA car culture, CO2 and worst quality of life .
Also, in a way, you can see that as a competition. Just like innovative companies will gain market share, innovative cities will become more attractive, make their inhabitants happier, offer more opportunities, etc. And once it starts, cities around will start feeling pressure from their own inhabitants to do the same. This is exactly what is happening in Paris, where strictly speaking Paris is a 2M people center of a 10M people urban area. Cycling really took off within Paris and then grew all around. When you live outside Paris and you see your colleagues cycling to work everyday with modern bike lanes, and you go back to your miserable infrastructure in the suburbs, it doesn't take long before you vote for the ones who promiss to follow the lead...
Toronto is the only city in north america to amalgamate cities as far as 130 km away with nothing in commun in order to get the title of the largest city in Canada . Toronto is built for cars and pollution . Not a green city .
Arguably the biggest factor in Victoria's favour: a connected, contiguous (and growing!) network of AAA protected routes arterials, with the spines of the 3 major regional trails acting as inter-city bike highways. Victoria's success probably has as much to do with it needing fewer km's of AAA routes to build a robust network - and then actually building it with gapless protection being part of the guiding principle. Montreal has similar modeshare #'s to YYJ when you look at the densest part of their cycling network - the Plateau. With that, Montreal could try to claim a neighbourhood as the cycling capital of Canada, but Victoria can claim a whole city...
Victoria is an isolated village and does not even rank on any world best biking city ranking.. You are so pretentious and so USA culture of ignorance and egocentric.
Also the moderate weather in Victoria definitely helps it compared to mainland cities in Canada. Montreal's moderate housing density supports shops/jobs close to people's homes.
@@keithholmes5433 weather is not correlated with bike mode share - that is to say that better weather doesn't produce more bike riders. Montreal frequently has more people riding in winter than almost anybody else in North America in late spring/early summer when bike volumes are highest
@@Burgundavia Winter weather is definitely correlated with fewer cyclists. One only needs to look at the statistics for services like bike share to see that that's the case.
Always interesting to get an outsider's take on my city (Montreal). I don't know if it's just me (maybe other Montrealers could chime in), but it seems like the popularity of cycling here has shot up even more just in the past year alone. I'm seeing a LOT more people on bikes this year compared to last year. Lots more cargo bikes. Lots more parents pulling their kids in trailers. Lots more people commuting to work. Lots more older people out on e-bikes. Maybe it has something to do with astonishing traffic congestion the city is experiencing simultaneously. Just a ton of road work everywhere (including never-ending work on one of the main south shore spans). But some of that road work is to put in new cycling infrastructure. It really does seem like Montreal is reaping the benefits of "if you build it (safe cycling infrastructure) they will come.
Also as a Montrealers, I can confirm that the number of cyclists as increased quite quickly in the past few years, including in the northern side of the city where I live and go to school and I am all for it! Each year I am surprised by the number of people on the REV Saint-Denis eventhough I am often not on the most frequented part of it (I use it mostly in Villeray and Ahuntsic).
Hard to pin down exactly why, but i don’t think it’s a coincidence that cycling has increased dramatically since the REV came in. Also with cost of living increasing, traffic being a nightmare, and generally more public awareness due in large part to youtubers like shifter and njb. I’ve been surprised by the number of people at my borough council meetings fighting for more and better bike infrastructure.
Something that helped, in my opinion, is that the city has been pushing much harder to finally add safer bike infrastructure in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Residents of those deeply car centric areas are suddenly given greater flexibility in transportation modes, better connectivity with the rest of the city and they’re using it in droves. It’s proving extremely useful for their local trips. The traffic calming effect of those road diets also make those streets safer to walk, which encourages them to do it more.
@@sted88 I agree; the traffic congestion and construction sites everywhere : these factors are definitely driving the increase in bike use. It's usually faster to get around by bike.
Oui, I also noted that increase. The numbers collected by the city supports this. The city is also moving ahead with more protected bike lanes and reserved bus lanes. As with any change, some citizen feel they are losing space for their beloved automobiles. Car ownership in Montreal is growing faster than the population. More cars = more trafic. Duh! The long four lane Henri-Bourassa boulevard is being transformed into a 2 lane for cars, one for bus, one for bicycles.
Winnipeg here. and a year round cyclist. I think things are changing here, every year I see more people riding and each year our paths seem to extend a little farther. Right now I think our paths are great, I just wish they would connect them. So many just end, no transistion to another type of path... Nope, they just end and you're in the middle of nowhere(ha! winnipeg) with no other path even close. .
the note about winnipeg being the control was interesting bec over the year i noticed bike infrastructure downtown where there was none. the prairie city i'm from has never built bike infrastructure!
I never even thought of bike valet parking before, but that's such a great idea! Tax paid would probably pay for itself in the long run anyways, with more people feeling secure parking their bike their car use would go down, so there's reduced wear and tear on roads from big heavy cars, less traffic so less drive (no pun intended) to expand and build expensive wider roads to accoodate, plus it's safer and less air pollution for everyone the less cars there are, even for drivers of cars! Even if it costs a couple bucks like a parking meter for a car would that's worth ensuring my bike will be there when I get back!
Great post. I think the key takeaway is small "p" political will to get it done. City leaders need to be brave in the face of opposition from voters who still feel it's their right to have all the publically-funded space they need on which to drive and park their cars and trucks. Repurposing some of those spaces for bike lanes (or even reducing speed limits in urban areas to improve non-car safety) can provoke a lot of outrage and it's a brave local leader who will weather that storm. Those that do deserve all the support we can give them.
5:05 For comparison, the cycling share only drops below 10% in a handful of municipalities in Denmark (mostly rural ones). The average is 15%, and larger cities usually around 20-30% (in some cases exceeding cars).
@@Shifter_Cycling I wonder what the figures are for the Netherlands. Probably higher, perhaps especially in the "rural" areas (because rural Netherlands is still full of people).
@@szurketaltos2693 no Denmark. have A lot of bike lanes, all over the Country. I work 24km away. I have 6km without bike lane smaller road low trafic, to the main road. the rest of the way. bike lane separated from the main car road the rest 18km
Super video Tom! My wife and I were in Victoria just this May and were blown away by how far ahead of our Hamilton home it is! We rented bikes rather than a car and we had many rental shops to choose from. Our b&b was just north of the University and we found ourselves riding downhill into the city and we toodled around then popped the bikes on the bus racks to get back up the hills to the b&b. (next time we are renting ebikes!). What struck me there was the DIVERSITY of riders and bikes!! It felt like what I imagine some aspects of Copenhagen: box bikes, hybrids,gravel, beater bikes, fixies, cargo bikes, spandex warriors, seniors shopping, suits, commuters. The whole gamut. My experience of Montreal is now dated (our eldest kid went to Concordia six or seven years ago and from OH, THE URBANITY! channel it was good but getting better but I don't think it touches Victoria. I loved the Galloping Goose Trail and that another trail runs all the way up island to the airport. Thanks for all the metrics and getting us thinking. I really think you are on tosomething with the one versus many city council thing! Perhaps if Hamilton were to de-construct Mike Harris' forced amalgation, we could get more momentum on the ground locally rather than fighting suburbs.
As someone who bikes from Langford to Victoria weekly, this has been a very interesting watch! My bike is my primary mode of transportation around the Victoria BC area, and I have a lot of hope for future bike infrastructure. Even in the last two years there's been a huge influx of new cyclists on the paths! It's great to see more people wanting to ride! I hope we see greater expansion of bike lanes and multi-use paths soon :D
Winnipeg is an interesting control case, I might have chosen a city with similar affordability metrics as the other two. I think people not being able to afford a car is a big aspect of there being an increased impetus to use bicycles instead. Nobody I know living in Toronto owns a car because nobody can afford rent, let alone car payments...
This is an interesting point. Housing affordability is quite different between Victoria and Montreal, so it's difficult to say how this would impact the results.
In my opinion, the cost of living or not being able to afford a car, these are NOT the driving force behind the increased use of bicycles, at least not in MTL. I know of MTL families with salaries well above 120 thousand/year, who, by choice, do not own a car. They , and their children bike, use public transportation ( metro , REM, bus) BIXI, or Communauto, which is car sharing. They could easily own a car, financially speaking, but have chosen not to. It's a choice and a limited financial situation is, not at all , one of the factors.I think the bike infrastructure, in MTL like the REV , has definitely influenced this choice. MTL has a safe, interconnected bike infrastructure that is constantly expanding, now even into areas that had practically nothing before.
I would like to add, that the opinion that more people are using bicycles because of their financial situation, this opinion feeds the stereotype of a person who chooses to use a bike because they are poor or have lost their drivers license because of drunk driving.... a dangerous stereotype that is not based on facts.
@@Shifter_Cycling Comparisons generally are too simplistic. Each place is unique and you need to factor in why they have, or haven't, good transport/biking infrastructure.
Thanks, Shifter for the comparisons. I am from Winnipeg, I think you have done a section on Winnipeg before, but if you are ever back this way I would be more than happy to provide a tour of some of the cycle built environment. Not perfect but there have been significant improvements. I see there have been some other related comments below as well.
Our mayor just declared Vancouver the #1 city for cancelling or removing infrastructure improvements that were planned or already built and paid for. 👏👏👏
Hey on the bright side I rode back and forth to the office today via Union and Adanac bike route and then over the 2nd Narrows bridge to North Van and it was super relaxing actually.
I live in Atlanta and the cycling infrastructure is pretty awesome in some areas and it's only getting better. Not only that but we have a straight paved path that goes in to the state of Alabama. There are also many greenways in all suburbs within an hour as well as gravel and mtb trails.
Greenways are fantastic, I use em all the time for leisure, but they need to be part of a comprehensive network with protected bike lanes to allow for partial car replacement. Idk about Atlanta, but many places I've lived nail the greenway but not the network.
Winnipegger here. I’m a committed bike commuter. I can’t argue with our limited bikeability. It’s gotten much better the last few years but admittedly the priorities here are still very car-centric with just an overall unwillingness to change. However yes our home affordability and standard of living is better so more people own homes especially in the newer subdivisions. More people end up driving from these suburbs. Having said all this, I feel encouraged that I see more people on the existing bike infrastructure every year so it is slowly happening maybe just not as quickly as some other cities. Our advocacy here also is woefully inadequate… I rarely pay attention to folks like the ‘bike mayor’… they just seem a little juvenile in their approach. Doesn’t matter though , I’m still out riding every day in spite of it all. Change starts at home.
Montreal is unique and has always been ranked at the top best biking cities in the world with more than 1,000 of biking infrastructure . Montréal is a world class metropolis , a leading-edge AI and urban development ecosystems, academic institutions,.Greater Montréal is clearly leading the way on sustainability-a key pillar of our strategy to build a green economy that is resilient and inclusive.
Retail bicycle outlets need to do more to encourage young people and older adults to ride bicycles. Sponsoring bike trains to escort children on their rides to school would be a great start. Organizing volunteers, teachers and other to ride along would be a great start. Getting children out of minivans and onto bicycles would be healthy exercise, build independence and make society healthier. Fun ride should also be organized. Getting a local bike club or school to sponsor an annual event to a local park or trail would encourage both adults and children to ride bicycles. Getting local elected officials to help with sponsored activities would help to educate them about the need for safe, protected bike lanes and trails in their community. Offering space and coffee for local riders to meet up would also improve store traffic.
Capital Bike in Victoria does a lot of cycling education with children, as well as many fun group rides (like they just had a cycle rave party where hundreds of people came out to travel along the Galloping Goose path network), as well as running a Bike to Work Week multiple times a year. And being bike marshals for events like the Pride Parade, and of course operating the bike valet parking downtown like was said in the video (as well as bike valet for big events like the Pride parade party and the Pow Wow). 😊
Not to take anything away from this video, but it's just so hard to compare data points from cities as differently scaled and bounded as Montreal and Victoria. Based on the jurisdictional equivalence you drew later in the video it seems like we should be comparing Victoria with the Plateau burough. Oh the Urbanity's video on 'How to meaningfully compare cities' is really great for this.
On the other hand, Victoria's location vs the countryside is not at all like the Plateau. Victoria seems more like a suburban idea of a cycling city, while the Plateau is more of an old European cycling city. Both still cities, mind you.
@@szurketaltos2693 Victoria is one of the oldest cities in Canada with a dense downtown core. It's the transportation and employment core of the entire southern portion of Vancouver Island, not a suburb. If you're talking about the Victoria metro area, Saanich, Langford, Colwood, etc are the suburbs here, but not Victoria. And as a resident, the cycling network in the City of Victoria is way ahead of surrounding suburbs, which consist mostly of painted lanes, sharrows, and rail trails (rapidly improving though, due credit). They are significantly different sizes, but it doesn't get much more European style urban than downtown Victoria. British vs French is the difference.
@@rileynicholson2322 looking at streetview, it really doesn't look like a major English city with an old core to me. Wide streets, moderate density for the most part.
A fine video as usual. One other dimension you didn't touch on--and there won't be stats on this--is cyclist / car driver relations/conflicts. Here in Montreal they are generally good; they were not good when I lived in Toronto where they were acutely agonistic at times.
Very true. I’ve found interactions with driver here in montreal to be (mostly) pretty good. Of course there will always be jerks, and that goes for both drivers and cyclists. I think the difference is that a lot of motorists in montreal are also cyclists, even if only for leisure or on weekends, so there is some level of care and respect. In Toronto, motorists see cyclists as just another obstacle keeping them from getting from their work downtown to their home in the suburbs (or vice versa) faster.
As a non native english speak, I just learned that speeding up and speeding down (... a road) is speeding. Anyways I just feed the algorithm - good job as always.
On its own, the word "speeding" means to drive over the speed limit. "Speeding down a road" simply means driving fast, not necessarily above the legal limit, but perhaps not slowing down for obstacles or adverse conditions.
I will add that I think your surprise is partially due to parsing. That is, at least for me, the units are "speeding" (going faster than normal in a context), "speeding up" (accelerating), and "down the ..."; "speeding down" is not a unit, not a verb-like construction. But "speeding up" can also be not verb-like. For example, "speeding up the canyon" just means I'm going fast up the canyon, where the "up" refers to an increase in altitude, and the parse is ((speeding) (up (the canyon))).
@@AubreyBarnard Thanks - yeah this all makes sense, it startled me when listening. Speed up as increase velocity is very common - hearing the opposite of „up“ when you‘d expect it is surprising
Really interesting deep dive Tom! That is really interesting about the one council vs many, but it does kind of make sense I guess that it gives the more urban core the freedom to better meet it's specific needs.
I have cycled both cities and they are great to ride in. I am way more familiar with Victoria but that does not biased me against Montreal because the people there are truly fantastic. I look upon Quebec as the most cycle friendly province in all of Canada.
In Winnipeg I’ve moved 3 times all within 5kms of my 7 jobs in last 17 yrs. Your right, short distance makes it easy to bus & bike. Winter biking since 2020. When one of my jobs was 8 km I bought an e-Bike.
Get a local politician to declare a ride to work, school or for fun day. The local news should ride along on a bicycle as well as Police, kids going to school and people going to work. The local bike shop and cycling club should sponsor group leaders for children rides.
Capital Bike in Victoria does an (I believe annual) event where cars “race” bikes from across the region - a car and a bike start at the same place, and they see which one gets to the end point of the Legislature first. The most recent one was out of 21 teams, 18 of them the bike won (and the three that lost were coming from the farthest away, and the car only beat the bike by a minute or two). That was all over the local news, local MLAs participated in it as well.
One long term side effect of the temporary invasion of the island by the ten Mayor of the Republik of Montréal was that it was so large , diverse and uinweildy that the city had to create semi autonomous semi-cities t not only for the former cities it invaded but also withi its own boundaries, and after the demerger, it kept this for its own territory which means more autonomy for neighbourhoods and more decentralised management of city. So some of the neighbourhoods that are part of the city of Montréal may have more bike friendly approach and some at more as suburbia and be car centric. On other hand, demorged cities have better snow clearing of sidewlks so are far mroe plesat to wlak in winter than sidewalks inside the city of Montréal that are icy and miserabe. (putting trees in sidewalks to make street look pretty makes it really hard to do snow clearing of sidewalks while the streets remain easy to clear).
Megacity certainly hasn't helped cycling in Ottawa. Not only did its forced amalgamation combine the central city of Ottawa with the surrounding suburban municipalities, it also included the rural areas of the surrounding former Carleton County. Now the Ottawa City Council is TOTALLY dominated by suburban and rural councillors, so there's little support for big new cycling developments. Indeed, in our last Mayoral election, one candidate's bold pledge to speed up implementation of planned cycling infra projects was used as a wedge by the conservative candidate to scaremonger the majority suburban electorate. 🙄
Ya I live in Victoria and bike just about everywhere. It has a ways to go still but has improved a lot in recent years. Looking forward to visiting MTL in a few weeks to ride around and check things out!
The Uni City or Mega City is most definitely a reason why Calgary and Toronto have been slow to build safe bike infrastructure like Victoria and Montreal. I honestly feel Calgary has become too big. It may be time to break it up into borough cities for many other reasons too.
just came back from a bikepacking trip in Vancouver island and i wouldn't know about Montreal's infrastructure and biking there, but biking there is fantastic.
In Bogota, Colombia, there are lots of paid bike parking, even in malls and parking lots there are spaces for specific for bikes, many are paid some are free, but the cost is less than a quarter of the cost for park a car, which is completely ok to have peace of mind about the bike not being stolen.
To be noted that 3.9% of trips by bike is for the metro area,, including suburbs. For Montreal proper (the island); its 16% (and probably more in 2024, those numbers are from 2018).
8 дней назад
Hello Emma. Indeed! I was also surprised by this low percentage in Montreal, while it is clearly much more, especially since the last 2 years. 2024 will definitely break some records regarding cycling in Montreal. 😊
I disagree about a rivalry being a bad thing. Sure rivalries can get toxic, but they can be an immence force for striving to do better. A good friendly rivaly can push both cities to proceed further than if they were just going it alone. It can also fire up other cities to get on board and strive to place higher themselves. Look qt Calgary and Edmonton's budgets last year. Calgary announced several million gor bike lanes and Edmonton had to one up Calgary and announced more money for bike lanes. How the rivalry is currently going between Calgary and Edmonton is. Edmonton is trying to build as many lanes as possible fast, where Calgary is being more methodical and getting residence feedback on the few bike lanes that they're doing. They're going slowly to build better. Its the classic "do you want it fast and cheaply built, or slow and built well, you cant have both fast and good" other cities watching how Calgary/Edmonton's rivaly plays out will learn from the mistakes and so will the two cities Edited to fix dyslexia fueled typos
I like a good natured competition as well. It can help motivate both cities to keep pushing and to find effective solutions, rather than to get complacent. It can also help drive media stories that get the word out to people in other communities. It can also shift the vision from bad, frugal designs that check a box to creating a great transportation system. It can make the cycling infrastructure a point of civic pride and cultural identity.
Jason (JP) from Bentonville, AR the self proclaimed, “MTB Capitol of the World!” However, it was not the city that pitched this claim but the Marketing arm of the Walton (as in Walmart) family. I think this distinction is different from here because this was a bit marketing sure but also a bit different of a ‘commitment’ as well. NWA where Bentonville is located is definitely a MTB destination and tourism spot. Heck the Olympic trials were held here and the U.S. Olympic MTB team has lived and trained here. When GCN visited they didn’t confirm but certainly indicated that is anyone wants to challenge that bold claim they have their work cut out for them. The thing is that this focus has had interesting trickle down effects. For instance to get to many MTB destinations Bike Lanes and separated Greenways have been built spanning the entire corner of the state. Much more than most Suburban or Semi-Urban areas I’ve visited have had. We have eBikes and Cargo bikes making huge showings already on the eve of a city eBike rebate program. Then the cycling has expanded beyond just MTBing we’ve hosted the Pump Track Worlds, Cyclocross Worlds, National Cyclocross, the Big Sugar Gravel part of the Lifetime Grand Prix off-road tour, the Amped Electric Games which feature OneWheel and Electric Unicycles, the PeopleForBikes Annual Bike Industry conference, the International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA) training week, and an Adaptive Off Road event. The irony is that someone in a recent discussion around health and eBikes have mentioned that I’d never hit my level 2 cardio zone. I responded that the only zone I tend to worry about on my commutes leads with ‘Construction’ with a huge Downtown Bike-Ped corridor, new Walmart HO cutting out a major chunk of our Greenway arterial, countless hotels coming in, and roadwork to deal with growth NWA also had the highest number of construction cranes per capita of anywhere in North America. Heck it seems like a strange thing to complain about but a major section of greenway was put in but a surfacing was used that made it slick and unsafe so they ripped it out and replaced it almost as soon as it had gone in. I guess what I’m trying to say is there is a difference in a city self proclamation and a benefactor backer backing up the marketing hype. At the moment NWA isn’t a commuter paradise but in about a year time it honestly could be. Heck ask your buddy Mr. Brunt about his time here or look up Seth’s videos from Berm Peak when he moved here for a month. Funny story I was heading to do the types of bikes in your community count from your subscriber milestone and I heard Seth’s voice from off the Greenway I was walking in and paused to say high once he finished his video. I didn’t even know he was in the area. When you started the video talking about a self proclaimed Best city title my thoughts went back to the first time I heard the “MTB capitol of the world” claim and I laughed but slowly with time (years) it’s went from “self proclaimed” to simply self proclaimed and the way it is going that add on may get dropped all together and the self proclaimed might get added to “Gravel Capitol” next and then the qualifier for type of biking might just drop off. Heck even ARDOT who is notoriously terrible for cyclists-pedestrians-disabled just opened up their latest project for Bentonville for public comment and it’s got a 12-foot bike path and design that doesn’t cross highway on ramps and leans in on gravel and MTB access, it’s not perfect but I honestly was blown away as ARDOT is a tough nut to crack. Look forward to your more research focused videos. If you like to go down the rabbit hole of research about the place OneWheels and EUCs have in the micro-mobility space I’d be happy pitch in on the research side.
I think it’s pretty neat that Victoria has almost the same population density as MTL (not including the Victoria greater area outside of the Victoria municipality) Shows how big the municipality of MTL is (and also how the dense bits of it are so dense that it offsets the less dense parts of the island)
Victoria is a village . Montreal is a metropolis of 5.1 million people with 8 major bridges and more than 1,000 km of biking infrastructure . Montreal ranks at the top biking city in the world . Victoria does not even rank on a list .
The Downtown Victoria Bike Valet has made it official: it’s easier to go downtown by bike rather than take your car. We live in one of the surrounding communities and we always take our bikes downtown, and we are lobbying our own municipal government to follow suit with more bike infrastructure.
Victoria has no winter so much easier to bike year round. Montréal has had Vélo Québec organization since last century (for decades) and they have advocated for maming cictiues bikeable , as well as pushing for the bike paths on intercity rural roads (Montréal Québec, Montréal Hull/gatineau, the Petit Train du Nord etc). Vélo Québec was hitting brick walls with their ideas in Montréal with only minor wins until things got unlocked with election of Valérie Plante and massive changes in recent years. (This is similar in paris with election of Annie Hidalgo who use COVID to transform the city to make it less car centric. But she didn't start it. If you watch Bourne Identity, he races on road along the Seine. (this is also done in a Bond movie as I recall and many others. That road was closed and truned into linear park (and that will be huge showcase for olympic opening this friday). BTW, the City of Montréal does not have full control over the island as residents of formerly separate cities voted un referenum to regain our independant after the Republik of Montréal undemocratically invaded and took over our cities, stop maintaining our roads but took our taxes (this was in 2002). Not all original cioties regained their independence because the referendums had nearly unacheivable threasholds (% of population, not % of voters). Because it is an island and the bridges are mostly provincial, the bike paths available in/out of the island are controlled by provincial government.
Yes, bike cities competing for bragging rights is probably helpful for everyone to gleen what's working, compared to what's better than working, and actually converting cars to bikes faster.
Montréal copied bike renting from Paris. Montreal is one of the most alive cities in Canada because, again, it is kind of French:) One more note. My relatives' house in Belgium is about to be confiscated by the government. It is on the planned bicycles highway territory. Bit of radical for Belgium where not so much land to build left.
Yes, Paris had early versions of bike-sharing back in the 1970s. Unfortunately, many Canadians and Americans think of European cities as if they are on another planet so they don't take things seriously until they see it succeed in here. Case in point: Congestion charges, which even New York City can't get implemented.
Gotta also jump in, I think DC was before Montreal in North America technically. Capital Bikeshare came about in 2010 when BIXI started in 2009. But before Capital Bikeshare, there was SmartBike DC that launched in 2008. It was a pretty small operation to start but it ended up essentially being merged into/replaced by Capital Bikeshare in the fall of 2010. Capital Bikeshare was significant upgrade to SmartBike DC, being more expansive and it expanded the bikeshare to the surrounding suburbs. Montreal was probably ahead on overall expansion of BIXI to start though, and sounds like it's way ahead of DC in terms of bike lanes. DC has some great biking infrastructure in some areas but has massive gaps in other areas that need to be improved or were shut down by the city (They idiotically stopped the Connecticut Avenue bike lanes). Also, not sure if BIXI has ebikes, but CaBi does and they are the absolute best.
@@j41500 bixi does have e-bikes but only came in recently. Also just started implementing year round service, although not all bike lanes are maintained in winter…
I was in Montreal for work at several broadcast stations for fifteen years. Snow and heavy slush in winter. Rubber boots are main fashion accessories during winter. Slush and salt. Here is no such thing in Paris. Nor it is ideal. My current collegue needs to go across Paris daily for work. She is getting motorcycle license, because it more convenient alternative. I'm in Belgium now. Wallonia has weak cycling structure. Because of insane hills everywhere. Flanders are Dutch in the opposite. Bikes as commute are doable on mostly flat terrain and winter needs extra municipal effort. Toronto and else are ignoring bike lanes. Many of them are covered in snow which was plowed from the roads beside bike lanes. I saw huge drop in cycling every winter in Toronto. Can't recall big difference from Montreal on it either .
Some of Monteal's suburbs are on the Island of Montreal. The city of Montreal doesn't occupy the entire island. The island is about 50 kms long & it occupies 472.55 km2. The city of Montreal occupies 365.13 km2 of that 472.55 km2.
You didn't mention it but let's be honest, Victoria has the mildest winter weather in all of Canada, which will help with people continuing to cycle throughout the year. That being said, would love to bike around in Victoria to explore their bike path system 🙂
@@Shifter_Cycling I fully agree that bike infrastructure and culture are the number one drivers of more people biking to get to their daily activities and thus making a city a great bike city. But living in Calgary myself (really enjoy seeing your clips of our fair city) and biking around most of the year, it's very easy to spot the drop off in number of people cycling when the temperatures drop, even in the few areas with good cycling infrastructure. So my comment was less on whether the weather makes a city a great bike city but more on the fact that milder weather makes it easier to bike year round which would probably partly explain the higher percentages in Victoria of trips made by bike over the year.
General comments from me (I wrote these as I was watching so they might get addressed in video). Caveat about populations: Victoria didn't have the amalgamation phenomenon of the late 90s early 2000s affecting it like Montreal did. It sits in the CRD and some of its bike routes are maintained at the district level. The CRD population is 383,360. The CRD is in effect the greater Victoria area though you have commuters from the nearby Cowichan Valley as well (roughly 90k pop) The whole of the island (because the city of Montreal doesn't cover the full island in spite of the intents of amalgamation) of Montreal is over 2 million, with a regional population that's even greater. Caveat on affordability: All evident factors considered, Montreal has been ranking worse. Taxes as high as they are at every rung and wages being among the lowest, on top of temperature swings that generate higher utility bills, these are a significant detriments to affordability back east. The one factor that kills affordability in BC is a large portion of the population is living in condominiums or strata housing, as opposed to Montreal. Those fees are generally in the 400s/m. Transit use caveat: The CRD used to have a rail link with the E&R, that was lost after a landslide and land-use/rights issues are harming the progress of its revival. In general, the region is bottlenecked geographically and its bus priority system is pretty nascent. However, it's worth noting that commuters from DT to the outer suburbs have speed parity with cars in a lot of cases, which... is better than being slower, as a lot of systems happen to be! The Province hasn't really been funding serious mass transit efforts outside Vancouver (besides subsidizing long distance bus connections as the private sector as been degrading its service offerings) and some political analysts are suggesting that needs to change. Victoria is easy to walk in general and the distribution of offices and job centers is highly favourable to that. The Unicity vs non issue: The Victoria area is a Green Party core, especially on the North-South axis. Saanich and Victoria are currently looking to amalgamate and their policies are fairly aligned. Beyond that, the province though road design requirements. The regional districts or transit agencies through their own visions can also be assisting in changing the environment. There's an expectation for MUPs in all new road construction/rebuilds at the moment and IIRC that expectation is the province's work. So it's not necessarily a matter of mimicry, it's often like-mindedness and higher government instances imposing things.
Victoria is a village , Montreal is a metropolis ranking the best biking city in the world with a population of 5.1 million . More than 1,000 km of biking path . i commute from the south shore on 3 massive bridges . Victoria does not rank on any world biking city . So pretentious and so BC USA culture .
Sitting here on a break thinking you guys gotta try Bloomington Bagel Company in Bloomington, IN. I hold firm that this is one of the best bagel shops in the world ❤❤❤
I'm perfectly happy having you -throwing Winnipeg under the bus- using Winnipeg as a control group. But I was disappointed that you didn't use it in the second half of the video. Didn't go into why Winnipeg is not a bike friendly city. I have my opinions and I would like to see how others see it.
Winnipeg certainly challenges cyclists with the condition of the streets and roads. A friend who lives and cycle(d) in Winnipeg got two broken hips relating to cycling and road conditions. Pot holes and large breaks in the pavement require the constant attention of cyclists. I was impressed in June 2024 by the cycling infrastructure present in Kingston Ontario.
While I support money being put into bike infrastructure here, I do wish there was a lot more effort put into fixing the edge of the street so I don't have to avoid all the cracks and potholes. Most of the time I am riding on roads/streets and only rarely am near bike infrastructure.
Been to both cities…both low key likeable places with that “social” bike vibe you talk about. And as you say, both benefit from different things that sort of get the same result - Montreal’s metro helps keep inner suburb traffic down, and its wide straight streets make it easy to fit bike lanes. And maybe the harsh winters help create their clear willingness to celebrate the warmer months - incl bike rides? Victoria has no metro of any kind and, outside the downtown, relatively narrow and often twisty inner / middle suburb roads - and plenty of car drivers well used to hustling along them at pace - so not great for cycling and harder to create lanes. One other thing helping Victoria - it’s weather makes it sort of bikeable all year round?
The weather is an interesting one because it's so different in both places. I'd say the fact that both are good bike cities despite their weather is an argument against weather being a big factor.
Just a note, I love your videos, but you left out newfoundland in your drawing of Canada. Next, is there any way I can contact you about getting some more information to goto my own town council about making our town more bike friendly? I ride daily and would love to see more on road and off road infrastructure here.
5:40 - I had to rewind and relisten 2 or 3 times - then rewind and put subtitles on the catch the word "household" LOL (and yes, English is my native language: 20 years in California and 50+ years in England)
So, what did you decide on about the sandwich? That 5th thought? Regarding the declaration for Victoria (That's the name of a city in south-east Texas also.) don't you suppose that it might be more about collecting more tourist dollars than anything else? Not to be really cynical about it. But if not that, then you wouldn't think they'd be proclaiming it.
The cities are very different in size and population. I think Victoria, being a government town, the politics are very different. There is a different approach to urban planing. Montreal has real challenges because they are working to house a population that earns less than government workers. This means every kind of person and family live in the city in large numbers. Victoria's bike valet that is fancy. In Montreal not everyone works downtown. Some building owners make accommodations to park your bike and that is great but not the best incentive. In the case of Montreal I think the city can not spend a single penny on bike infrastructure and bicycle usage would remain the same. Even if you scrapped Bixi. There are many great trails in place. People are used to riding for work and pleasure. Even if a new administration is elected and they remove some lanes on streets I don't think it will have a big impact. I wonder if in Victoria the same is true.
One of the first things I've noticed as an Australian cyclist is that most people choose to wear helmets on their commute and I take it that the Governments haven't made it compulsory or mandate the use of bicycle helmets like down here in all of Australian Towns and Cities with fairly hefty fines if the police get you. I'm not sure of the percentage of helmet wearers in Canada but going by this video, seems as though at least 75% choose to wear them whether or not they have to by law or not, it's personal choice and that's how it should be here in Australia as well.
The irony is that in Haarlem, Holland the bicycle "valet" (called 'fiets stalling') is mainly there to get all the bikes off the street and theft, although a problem, is not the number one reason that they exist.
Winnipegger here, yeesh. Not really a fan of all the bumpouts and such, especially for a winter city, in terms of maintenance and initial cost. My preference is lower speed limits and eliminating on street parking. And enforcement of driving law.
Unicity: rather depends on the balance of power and population, no? And as I understand it, a Conservative province deliberately jammed suburbs into Toronto to dilute the urban power. A unicity with a smaller "suburban" band inside would be better at imposing urban policies across it.
I'm not going to bother with my bike if I can just walk or take public transit. Not having to bother with my own contraption to get around is the dream.
@@Shifter_Cycling Montreal's transit would cut into cycling a bit. Despite commuting by bike, I probably wouldn't own a bike with if transit and walking were city with a subway level. But I'd still own a car for leaving the city, so I can see why car ownership goes up with population.
I can not believe you came to Victoria again and didn't say hi. The population stats are a bit off as municipal boundaries are entirely arbitrary. The tiny tiny little patch of land that is downtown Victoria only has 90k people, but the proper city population is closer to 400-500k depending on what you're including.
I'm Dutch and I hate people with helmets and sports bikes. I get so confused seeing NA people bike. But you have a great channel and this was again a great video. I learn alot about the difference between your bike culture and ours. Go and spreat your points. great channel you have, thank you.
Until a few years ago i never wore a helmet, but being a dad has really changed my perspective. I don’t want to get hit by a car, smash my head on the road and not get to watch my kids grow up. Sadly that is a reality we have to deal with in NA. I probably wouldn’t wear one either if i had Dutch cycling infrastructure 😉
Nothing wrong with wearing a helmet, as long as they're not mandatory. Some people feel more comfortable with them if they ride at higher speeds or encounter hills or bad road conditions (for example, snow and ice in the winter).
Hi Tom, you should look into my city of Toronto with it vast bike paths in the ravines and hydro corridors. We can cross the city away from noisy traffic on paved bike paths.
I almost never use the ravine bike paths in Toronto, because they don't let me off at places that I want to get to. Today I cycled on Sherbourne, Bloor, Wellesley, University and Gerrard, because they got me to the appointments and shopping trips that I needed to get done. I've got nothing against the ravine bike lanes, though, and I know that they can be great if you've got a long commute.
Which ravine or hydro corridor runs across the city?? The main ones are Humber River, Don River, and Finch Hydro corridor, but they are all on the periphery. The only useful multi-use trail that crosses Toronto is the MGT by the lake, but that's not a ravine or hydro corridor.
@@Shifter_Cycling It's not really true. Saying Victoria is a city of 95k is like saying Vancouver is a city of 600k. While technically true, that's disregarding the fact that both of these cities are divided into many municipalities (13 in Greater Victoria). Victoria's metro population is approximately 400k.
Greater Victoria is made of 13 municipalities (Saanich, Esquimalt, Oak Bay etc) and the 95 000 is the population of Victoria only and does not include the population in the other municipalities. I believe the region has around 400 000.
@@Shifter_Cyclingfor Victoria Proper maybe, but the seamless municipalities that surround it are considered a part of the city by locals. Also most of our bike trails are outside of downtown.
Victoria is actually 400,000 population, not 92k of victoria municipality. you ride the Goose trail 14 minutes and you are in the Saanich section which is larger population than Victoria, or Esquimalt in 8 minutes ... because it is all really metro victoria. We just have not amalgated. Montreal loses any and all cycling measures based on the overwhelming largest factor: winter, which Victoria lacks. The Vibe in Victoria is more tourist destination oriented, not sophisticated and artsy like Montreal. Riding through the downtown means sharing the street swit 15,000 cruise ship passengers. Riding the Goose is riding with tons of RV travellers on ebikes.
Political will is the amazing x-factor. It's striking how seldom democracy results in political bodies actually being committed to improving the lives of the majority of citizens. In the rare cases they are, things usually leap forward.
Victoria is pretentious to declare itself the cycling capital of Canada, while serious world reports, show Montreal to be one of the top 10 best biking Cities. on the planet with more than 1,000 km of biking infrastructure on the island.
