Montreal continues bike ban at West Island park to avoid conflicts with pedestrians

To the disappointment of bike riders, a suburb in Montreal will continue its ban for cyclists in its largest park this summer. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dollard-des-Ormeaux banned cyclists from Centennial Park, according to a report from CBC.

With so many people flocking to parks during the pandemic, the area soon became congested with people clamoring for some fresh air and exercise. That created some friction between cyclists and walkers. Dollard-des-Ormeaux Mayor Alex Bottausci explained that with so many people in the park, there was quite a bit of tension when cyclists rode through.

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“Arguments have come about and accidents have also happened and the city is always asked to get involved to try to resolve it,” Bottausci said. “With the influx of new users to the park, we felt that if we were to add the bikes back, it would further jam things up and potentially cause further accidents and arguments between our residents.”

The ban will end after the summer, and the mayor believes that ultimately it will be lifted in the years to come during the warm months. But at the same time, he believes both walkers and cyclists will need to get along better, and that that will involve some planning on the city’s part.

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“The park has many paths so it’ll be a question of maybe dedicating one particular path to cyclists and another path specifically to the walkers and joggers,” he said.