Montrealers will now be able to bring their bikes and walk their dogs in the metro more often, under a new pilot project that will be launched this Saturday. For three months this summer, between May and August, there will be no more time restrictions.
This was announced by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) in a press release on Wednesday morning, when the cycling season – and also that of BIXI Montréal – is about to be relaunched in the metropolis. , with the arrival of warmer days.
By this Saturday, it will therefore be possible to travel with your bike in the metro from the opening of the latter until 7 a.m., then from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and finally, from 6 p.m. when the network closes in the evening. Until now, this was only allowed between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., then after 7 p.m., on weekdays. Access will also remain possible at all times during weekends and holidays, as was already the case.
Authorized in the metro since October 2022, dogs – which must be kept in a muzzle and on a leash at all times – will also be able to enter the metro during these same extended hours from Saturday.
Then, this summer, we will put aside all these restrictions. Thus, from May 20 and until August 20, it will be possible to transport your bicycle or walk your dog in the metro “at any time, seven days a week, except during specific bans linked to large-scale events. traffic,” says the STM.
The pilot project, which will run until November 15, will now also allow bicycles to be positioned in all metro cars. Until now, two-wheelers were only tolerated at the front of the train, in the car located just behind the driver’s cabin. Only rule: it will be necessary to respect a limit “of two bicycles per car” and “one bicycle per door when boarding or disembarking”, slices the transport company.
In fact, it now recommends that bicycle users “avoid the lead car because of the school groups, daycare services and people with functional limitations who use it”.
STM Chairman of the Board of Directors, Éric Alan Caldwell, says these relaxations of the rules are intended “to offer greater flexibility to cyclists who wish to combine the two modes of travel”. Above all, he says he wants to “ensure a harmonious coexistence between bicycles, people in wheelchairs and dogs in the metro”. His group will test in particular, during the pilot project, if the fluidity of the service is intact, if the security remains and if the crowding varies in the cars.
“Nothing beats the bicycle for covering the first or last kilometers that separate the nearest metro station from our initial or final destination,” said Vélo Québec CEO Jean-François Rheault. saying “convinced” that cyclists “will be able to show courtesy and prove that this cohabitation on board metro cars is beneficial” for everyone.
