Another day in the Montreal bike lane saga. This time, a weird development.

Montreal has officially put a planned Réseau express vélo (REV) extension on hold, reversing course days after mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada dismissed reports the project had stalled, according to the Montreal Gazette.

The delay centres on a missing piece. It was how cyclists would safely cross Highway 40 along Lacordaire Blvd., a key link between Montréal-Nord and St-Léonard.

City officials say that question needs an answer before anything moves forward. “We’re not going to spend $30 million to put bike paths in the middle of nowhere and without having a safe, secure access to get to the other side,” Alan DeSousa said at city hall.

Cyclists greatly concerned

Local cycling advocates are, as you can imagine, extremely concerned. “It’s an enormous loss if they don’t do it. We have no other options,” Jean-François Gagné of the Association pour la mobilité sécuritaire de Montréal-Nord, said.

He also pointed to frustration among those who have worked on the project for years. “There are people working on these projects, people who invest their time and energy, and then, at the last minute, they get called off,” he said. “It feels a bit like we’re being laughed at.”

At the centre of the impasse is the Lacordaire overpass. Quebec’s transport ministry is preparing major repair work, but those plans don’t include space for a bike path. The province maintains that roadway configuration, including adding cycling infrastructure, falls under the city’s responsibility.

New mayor vs. previous

This is hardly the first anti-bike lane development in the city. Following nearly a decade of expansion under previous mayor Valérie Plante, things took a very different direction after mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada was elected. In fact, Plante was even concerned that some of her work building cycling infrastructure–not just bike lanes, but things like increasing bike share numbers, having them available during the winter, and more, might come under threat.

Martinez Ferrada, along with her party Ensemble Montréal, now dominates most of local council. And one of its big mandates is scrutinizing or even seemingly kiboshing present or future projects. Cyclists in Montreal have been vocal about these moves, in the media as well as demonstrations.

Montreal says it pushed to have a bike lane included in the provincial work, but without success. Discussions are expected to continue, though for now, the REV extension, once slated for 2027, is effectively on ice.

Asked about the reports last week, mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said she was disappointed to once again see “disinformation” about the city’s bike network circulating online.

Meanwhile, the city did say it would be repairing potholes for the upcoming road worlds. But that isn’t exactly for local riders, more so that Tadej Pogačar doesn’t break his wheel going through a massive crater. So it’s more about optics, not the everyday commuter.