Montreal Gazette - Clear Montreal bike paths of snow and ice, study says

Winter cycling levels in Montreal are now high enough that the city has an obligation to clear its bike paths and lanes of snow and ice, says a McGill University researcher who has recently published a study on winter cycling in three North American cities.

Researchers from McGill’s Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics investigated winter ridership patterns in Montreal, Vancouver and Portland. They wanted to understand what factors influenced cycling levels in the colder months, and whether cities could do anything to improve cycling levels through winter. The researchers found the number of Montrealers using bicycles for transportation throughout the winter months has markedly increased in the past few years, with hundreds of cyclists now using the most popular bike paths daily in winter.

“Montreal winter cyclists seem to react less to colder temperature (than those in Portland or Vancouver) [...] Surface conditions is the main factor here,” said Luis Miranda-Moreno, an assistant professor who co-authored the winter cycling study with research assistant Christopher Kho.