Multi-use pathways are often dismissed by cyclists as being second-rate bike infrastructure. There’s
definitely something to this, because people on bikes and people on foot tend to go pretty
different speeds and just throwing everyone onto the same path is a recipe for conflict. Frick,
cyclists themselves travel at very different speeds. People biking to get their groceries
and families out for a casual recreational ride are very different from commuters late for work
and road bikers getting a workout. With that said, it’s hard not to notice, in North America
at least, that multi-use pathways very often provide the best cycling experience around.
This isn’t because they’re perfect but because they’re usually better than the alternative.
This is really obvious in Ottawa, where the canal, river, and other pathways are easily
the gems of the bike network, but we’ve noticed a similar pattern in other Canadian cities too.
If you’re lucky enough to live near a multi-use pathway that connects you to useful destinations,
you’re probably going to have a better cycling experience than 99% of the population.
The biggest strength of multi-use pathways is that they usually have better separation from motor
vehicle traffic than on-street bike lanes do. Take any random on-street bike lane in Canada and
chances are it’s not a place you’d be comfortable letting your kids, or parents, ride. It could be,
with better protection, but at the moment it probably isn’t. Take any random multi-use
pathway however and the odds are much higher that it’s a comfortable and enjoyable space to be.
There’s probably less danger and noise from cars, and more greenery. They benefit from the fact that
they often follow a river, or old train tracks, or an old industrial corridor, so they’re very often
separate from the road network instead of tacked on. This also leads to another big advantage
that they often cover a long distance and are relatively consistent. It’s depressingly common
for on-street bike lanes to last a few streets and then just disappear, leaving you to fend
for yourself and find a new route, sometimes even shooting you out onto a stretch where
cars can’t see you very well, but if you look at multi-use pathways, the Lachine Canal in Montreal,
the Arbutus Greenway in Vancouver, and the Rideau Canal in Ottawa, they’re all in the ballpark of
10 kilometres long. Finding an on-street bike lane with that distance and consistency is rare.
Multi-use pathways also have some strategic advantages. A lot of people don’t like
dedicated bike infrastructure because they don’t like giving space to cyclists,
whether because they have negative perceptions of cyclists or they see them as being
too small of a minority to warrant their own space. To the latter critique we would say
cyclists aren’t a fixed population — cities that build better bike infrastructure get more cycling.
Regardless, multi-use pathways get around some of this opposition because they’re not specifically
for cyclists. They are more inclusive. This is extra useful in winter because many people don’t
like the idea of plowing bike infrastructure because biking in the winter is still seen as
an extreme activity for dedicated enthusiasts. But pretty much everyone can relate to walking
in the winter so winter maintenance of a multi-use pathway is an easier sell.
Multi-use pathways obviously still have disadvantages: they tend to be narrow, so
especially at peak times they can get congested, and sometimes they take a winding route if they’re
designed to be more recreational than useful. They can also be dangerous at intersections if they
follow along a busy road, although that’s the case for regular bike lanes too without bike-specific
intersection design. With that said, we still think that multi-use pathways can do a lot to
improve cycling options, especially in suburban areas. We’ve seen some pretty good examples in
Montreal’s South Shore suburbs. Longueuil has the Desaulniers Linear Parkway, a relatively wide
pathway with decent markings at road crossings and pretty good driver awareness too. We assume it’s a
conversion from a railway line, but it would be amazing if newer suburban developments could be
built with paths like this forming essentially a network of bike and pedestrian-only roads
going through the city. Multi-use pathways don’t always have to be separate from the road network
though — continuing down the Saint Lawrence River you’ll find Boucherville, which has a concrete
separated multi-use pathway along a two-lane road that has low-to-moderate car traffic.
There’s also a sidewalk on the other side of the road, although it disappears at points.
Aside from the disappearance of the sidewalk, this is a pretty good model
for a street in a suburban or small town context that balances different users.
The pathway was actually widened and given better protection from cars just three or four years ago.
These are both examples of individual roads or pathways, but obviously the gold standard
is having an actual network. Further down the river, Varennes is a suburb of Montreal with a
surprisingly functional bike network built in part on multi-use pathways that go through parks in the
middle and around the edges of town, in some cases following along streets. They do a good job of
connecting relevant destinations, like schools and stores, and they do an excellent job of providing
shortcuts through blocks to give pedestrians and cyclists better connectivity and shorter distances
than cars. This isn’t cutting edge European design or anything, there are some two-way unprotected
bike lanes and the main road going through town still feels pretty terrifying on a bike, but
this is noticeably better than the average North American suburb or even city. Depending on where
you live, your kids can probably bike to school safely and you can probably comfortably bike
to the grocery store if you want. You can even comfortably get to Montreal through Boucherville
and Longueuil, although at 30 kilometres or 20 miles, that’s more of a recreational day trip than
a reasonable commuting distance for people like us who only sometimes call themselves cyclists.
Thanks for watching through to the end of the video.
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