{"id":226869,"date":"2025-10-20T12:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226869\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T12:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T12:31:08","slug":"mayor-plante-warns-against-any-future-montreal-bike-lane-rollbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/226869\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Plante warns against any future Montreal bike lane rollbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outgoing Montreal mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante has issued a pointed warning to those seeking to replace her. She is urging them not to strip back the city\u2019s hard-won cycling network. Speaking at a mobility convention in Montreal, she said any attempt to roll back bike lanes would undermine years of progress. \u201cI\u2019m really crossing my fingers we keep moving forward \u2014 not backward. That would be terrible,\u201d she said, as reported by The Gazette<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bike lane debate heats up with Montreal mayoral candidates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Plante highlighted tangible gains made under her administration. More Montrealers now travel by bike, on foot, or by bus than they did five years ago. It is a shift she attributes to sustained investment in active transit. Seniors\u2019 use of public transport increased sharply after STM fares were lifted in 2023. BIXI recorded its highest-ever ridership. Additionally, the number of accessible metro stations more than doubled. Through the build-out of 17 interconnected bike corridors, including the high-profile REV network, cycling has moved from the margins to the mainstream of urban mobility.<\/p>\n

But\u2026not everyone is thrilled about these changes. Bike lanes have become a polarizing issue in the current mayoral race. Ensemble Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Soraya Martinez Ferrada has pledged to review supposedly unsafe corridors, while Projet Montr\u00e9al candidate Luc Rabouin accuses her of preparing to dismantle sections of the REV, particularly on arteries like Henri-Bourassa and Chabanel.<\/p>\n

Course reveal: Mont Royal hightlights Montr\u00e9al 2026 road world championships route<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Plante acknowledged that the most controversial projects \u2014 notably on Saint-Denis Street \u2014 were born from tragedy. There were fatal collisions there in 2014 and 2015. \u201cLife should always come before the fluidity of cars,\u201d she said. \u201cA mayor\u2019s duty is to govern not just for today, but for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While admitting that not all Montrealers will accept the changes, she insisted the evidence is clear. \u201cYou can argue all you want, unless you deny the science,\u201d Plante said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t build chaos. We built safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing bike lane debate is not just happening in La Belle Province. Across the country, cycling infrastructure continues to come under threat. There has been all sorts of bike lane drama<\/a> in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outgoing Montreal mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante has issued a pointed warning to those seeking to replace her. She is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[33276,49,48,635,108526,2338,82],"class_list":["post-226869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bike-lanes","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mayor-valerie-plante","tag-montreal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}