Montreal has long been a stronghold of Bicycle use, but it could be stronger. In Amsterdam, more citizens use bikes than cars. Nearly 30 percent of Dutch commuters always travel by bicycle, and an additional 40 percent sometimes bike to work (Source, pdf). Montrealers use bikes less than 2% of the time.

Public policies that make biking more attractive are:

1. dedicated bike paths
2. dedicated parking for bikes
3. full integration with public transportation
4. education of motorists
5. the high cost of motoring through taxes, parking fees etc.

Source: SustainaBlog

The bicycle has many attractions as a form of personal transportation. It alleviates congestion, lowers air pollution, reduces obesity, increases physical fitness, does not emit climate-disrupting carbon dioxide, and is priced within the reach of the billions of people who cannot afford a car. Bicycles increase mobility while reducing congestion and the area of land paved over. Six bicycles can typically fit into the road space used by one car. For parking, the advantage is even greater, with 20 bicycles occupying the space required to park a car.

Few methods of reducing carbon emissions are as effective as substituting a bicycle for a car on short trips. A bicycle is a marvel of engineering efficiency, one where an investment in 22 pounds of metal and rubber boosts the efficiency of individual mobility by a factor of three. On my bike I estimate that I get easily 7 miles per potato. An automobile, which requires at least a ton of material to transport one person, is extraordinarily inefficient by comparison.

The bicycle is not only a flexible means of transportation; it is ideal in restoring a balance between caloric intake and expenditure. Regular exercise of the sort provided by cycling to work reduces cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and arthritis, and it strengthens the immune system.

I know this may sound strange considering that we live 1,300 miles from the Gulf, but we are responsible. If you drive a car, you are responsible. If you buy food imported from Mexico, California or South America, you are responsible. If you regularly take pharmaceutical medications, you are responsible.

You see, these habits, and many others, require oil and lots of it. All this oil is imported into Quebec one way or another. This demand for oil drives the hunger to find it, drill for it and extract it in places and situations that have eventually led to this disaster in the Gulf. It has the potential to kill vast quantities of life and food (I have heard possibly 68% of ocean life).

Ultimately, this disaster is not about oil or looking for energy sources. It is about our society and how we have organized ourselves to live a self-destructing, unsustainable way of life. The sooner we re-organize ourselves and take back the power to live autonomous, fulfilling lives, the better off we will be.

If a society cannot deal with resource depletion (which all societies are to some
degree designed to do) the truly interesting questions revolve around the
society, not the resource.

~Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies~

“Change” President Unwilling to Tackle US Oil Addiction

Source: Spiegel Online

And there is also a simple reason that BP and other oil companies are drilling at depths of up to 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), far from the coast. They are servicing a greed for cheap energy and resources that fuels 250 million automobiles on America’s roads, keeps the country’s countless air-conditioners running and provides water for fantasy cities in the middle of deserts. There are 300 million Americans — around 5 percent of the global population — but they consume around 25 percent of the world’s oil.

As long as this thirst for energy persists, there will be no end to the costly gamble that oil production has become. Shortly before the Gulf catastrophe, Obama himself loosened regulations for coastal drilling.

With his address on Tuesday, the president had an opportunity to initiate a rethink of America’s approach to oil. But he preferred to stay vague — probably in no small part because he doesn’t want to come across as haplessly as Jimmy Carter. In 1979, the former president gave a similar address from the Oval Office. At the time, the US was suffering from an acute shortage of oil, the economy was in crisis and Carter’s presidency was also wavering. “Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?” Carter asked, pensively.

Americans Don’t Want to Change

That’s not the kind of thing Americans want to hear. In 1980, voters drove Carter out of office. In his speech, Carter called for 20 percent of the United States’ energy to come from solar power by 2000 and for an end to dependence on foreign oil. Today, only 1 percent of the energy America consumes comes from solar power, and two-thirds of its oil is imported from abroad.

This is great news and shows true leadership from an entrepreneurial company. In a province that produces some of the cheapest electricity in the world, this is almost a no-brainer. It is good for the sustainability of the local economy, is emissions free and is good for Communauto’s brand.

As a proud Communauto member, I can’t wait to try out these all-electric cars when they’re available.

Source: Communauto Press Release

Communauto to offer all-electric Nissan LEAF to clients in 2011
Carsharing pioneer to add first all-electric real-world car to fleet

Communauto, one of the world’s largest and North America’s first carsharing service, announced today a commitment to add 50 Nissan LEAFs to its fleet when the vehicle is available to the Canadian market before the end of 2011.

“By offering the all-electric Nissan LEAF next year, Communauto is reconfirming its environmental commitment to our more than 20,000 users,” said Benoît Robert, President of Communauto. “Our customers will soon be able to share the only real-world car with zero emissions and that brings together all the comfort, style and practicality that they are looking for.”

Communauto plans to integrate the Nissan LEAF into its fleet with the technical support of the Centre National du Transport Avancé (CNTA), at some locations in and around Montréal and Québec City. This is the first and largest all-electric self-service carsharing project to be announced in Canada.

“Nissan’s agreement to supply the LEAF to Communauto was facilitated by our MOU partnership with the Government of Québec, Hydro-Québec, Montréal, Québec City and the Agence de l’efficacité énergétique du Québec. The MOU and agreement with Communauto are a testament to the importance of establishing the strong relationships required to build a zero-emission community,” said Mark Grimm, President, Nissan Canada Inc.

Hydro-Québec will be implementing the charging infrastructure Communauto will need to keep the Nissan LEAFs fully charged when carsharers are on the go next year.

“When it comes to transportation, electricity is the way of the future. Thanks to the clean, renewable and reliable energy that we provide, Hydro-Québec can offer Quebecers a healthier environment,” explained Thierry Vandal, Hydro-Québec’s President and CEO. “The company is pleased to play an active role in transportation electrification and to contribute to the ecologically responsible initiative being launched by Communauto and Nissan.”

Montreal plans to have its entire fleet of buses powered by electricity by 2025. Why will it take so long?

Source: CBC News

Montreal Transit Corporation (STM) executive director of operations Carl Desrosiers said Friday that, “It’s not achievable today because technology is not [there yet], but it will be achievable by 2025,” he told CBC News.

I find that hard to believe. There are currently more than 25 manufacturers of trolleybuses.

The STM plans to start testing the buses within two years to see whether they can stand up to Montreal’s winters.

Desrosiers says the buses are best suited for short trips. The electric buses would likely need to recharge for five to 10 minutes after each 10 to 15 kilometre-long trip, he said.

It is still unclear how much the electric buses would cost, but Desrosiers said in the long term they would ultimately pay for themselves with the savings in fuel consumption.

On a person by person basis nothing makes a bigger difference to our carbon footprints than the reduction or even the complete elimination of using a passenger car daily. While we shouldn’t ignore the benefits of purchasing a new energy efficient appliance, adjusting our thermostats or ensuring unused lights are switched off all of these gesture pale into insignificance compared with reducing your driving by 70% or more. One person switching to public transit can reduce daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds per day or more than 4,800 pounds in a year, I won’t depress you and compare that to changing your light bulbs as all gestures matter – but the gasoline powered car is the single biggest individual green debt we use daily.

Finally, there is public transportation from downtown Montreal to Dorval (P.E. Trudeau) airport! This new bus (#747) is like a regular bus meaning that you can use your daily STM card and it does not cost you anything extra to ride! This should be great! I will certainly use it for my next trip to the airport.

Service starts today, Monday March 29th. For more info and to get bus schedules.

My mother lives in Charlottesville and marvels at the pedestrian and bicycle friendly features it has. Google Maps with bicycle paths does a good job of showing this off.

Unfortunately, this feature is NOT YET available for Montreal. However, Google does provide walking directions which should be a decent substitute until Google makes this feature available for us. To request that Google make bike paths available for Montreal, send them an email.

In Montreal, traveling from the west to east, or vica versa, is relatively easy due to the topography. Any bicyclist knows to just take deMaisonneuve or Sherbroke St. But how about traveling north and being able to avoid the steep grades due to the Mont? This is where Google needs to help cyclists.

Giving cyclists the same type of support tools as motorists for finding their way in a busy world is a step in the right direction towards making the world a better place. For more info, see Google Maps Bike There.

Source: Discovering Urbanism

Google has released a “Grab Your Bike and Go” feature to give cycling directions for all maps. Google’s Shannon Guymon is the opening plenary speaker at the National Bike Summit and she’s expected to announce the new feature this morning and give a demonstration.

The feature:

• Identifies cycling facilities (for now in “hundreds of US cities”)
• Shows which routes are considered safer than others, including paths that have limited or no driving
• Uses elevation grades to estimate times and recommend routes

It shouldn’t be too long before many localities and non-profit organizations are able to feed their information to Google. Unlike transit routes, there’s nothing proprietary about safety recommendations. Right now Google lists the Charlottesville pedestrian mall as a recommended route, although it is actually prohibited to cyclists. Google accepts feedback on all of these recommendations, so we can all take part in building the most accurate and useful mapping tool.

It would be so great to have an un-driver’s license – I want one!

Source: La Presse (francais)

It all started with a car accident. “I decided not to replace it because I was afraid. I thought my life would never be the same, but I realized that I didn’t know the bus network,” she recounts.

Mme Field joined an organization in her neighborhood, Sustainable Ballard. One thing led to another, and she became the head of the Undriver License project. As of today, more than 3,600 members have received an undriver license. At different levels, they are committed to leave aside the car for alternative modes of transport.

The 52-year-old woman explains that she changed her habits slowly. “I began for example by looking at the labels and I realized that I was eating crackers that came from England.”

Julia Field is not an eccentric granola or an extreme militant. No more than the president of Sustainable Ballard, Jenny Heins. “In Seattle, it’s part of the culture. It’s the people who go around in Hummers who are the strange ones. There are a lot of groups like ours,” she stresses.

• How to talk about peak oil and convince others that this issue will impact us very soon?
• How to discuss climate change and its consequences for Montreal?
• What is the Transition Town movement, which offers a response to these issues – a movement created by citizens for their community? It is based on facts, focuses on concrete action, and most importantly, is also fun and inclusive!
• How can we find inspiration in the Transition Town movement to launch initiatives in various areas of Montreal, in order to reduce our dependence on oil and better resist the shocks of the near future?

Free entrance – Donations welcome
Bring your mug!

A new community group has sprung up in the Mile-End neighborhood with the ambitious goal to reduce auto use.

Other urban areas, most notably Berkeley, CA have managed to dramatically reduce auto use by aggressively installing berms, stop signs and barricades where only bikes and pedestrians can pass. There is also a more aggressive vandalism/propaganda campaign that has been in effect for many years (see photo, right). It is simply annoying to drive through that city, which was by design.

Mile-end must navigate the murky Montreal political process to achieve its ends.

Source: Car Free Mile-End

Clinging to car-dependence as a way of life or as an economic model for growth is like climbing the smokestack on the Titanic. But I hesitate to extend the metaphor to include the proverbial “lifeboat community” as a way of casting the Mile End. None of the seemingly catastrophic changes that seem to loom is going to happen overnight. Yes we should try to reshape our neighbourhood according to sustainable, sensible principles. And yes, this should involve a dramatic reduction in car use by us all. But this will never happen in a vacuum to the exclusion of our neighbours. Perhaps as a motivating factor we can think of a Mile-End striving to be car-free, or going “car-lite”, as a matter of setting an example for those neighbours who must ultimately be a part of our future.

The City of Montreal unveiled the winning design for 400 new sustainable bus shelters to be built over the next year throughout the city. Features of the winning design from the firm of LeBlanc & Turcott include:

• Solar panels for lighting
• A self-supporting structure
• Modular design for various sizes

Source: Bustler

Drawing inspiration from the STM’s newly minted brand signature, “Mouvement collectif,” the design proposal by Leblanc + Turcotte + Spooner offers a modular, scalable solution. Featuring a self-supporting structure, the concept enables the manufacturing of base models, with the possibility of joining several units together to create variable-size configurations that can accommodate larger or smaller numbers of users.

The design features a communications column, which could house various components including dynamic digital displays and backlit advertising posters. An integrated solar power system will ensure lighting of shelters that cannot be connected to the power grid.

The jury was especially impressed with the potential for integration and modular construction afforded by the winning team’s proposal. In a statement, jury co-chairs Denise Vaillancourt, Executive Director, Planning, Marketing and Communications, STM, and Gilles Saucier, architect and partner in the firm Saucier + Perrotte, noted: “This preliminary design offers a comprehensive array of solutions to the complex problems with which the competing designers were presented. The concept incorporates current technologies, and meets the STM’s comfort and safety requirements.”