Abstract Manager

In 2023, the Montreal’s Urban Planning and Mobility department conducted a pilot project that consisted of considerable enhancements to the road markings on two existing vélorues (bike streets).

In Quebec, on a street designated as a vélorue, cyclists have priority over vehicles in the sense that may ride in the middle of the lane or two-abreast and are not obligated to move over to the right to let vehicles pass. According to initial observations, neither cyclists nor motorists were adopting the expected behaviours on existing vélorues. It was hypothesized that was due to abstract nature of the standard traffic signs for vélorueas well as the absence of other visual cues allowing users to distinguish a vélorue from a conventional shared lane and to infer the expected behaviours.

As part of the pilot project, road markings were enhanced to clearly distinguish the vélorue from other streets and to communicate the expected behaviours to both cyclists and motorists sharing the street. The new road markings were derived from those used on Montreal's Express Bike Network (REV) cycle tracks, featuring a large circular pictogram at the beginning of every block and two parallel coloured lines on either of the lane. In this case, the pictogram shows a large cyclists ahead of a small car and the word vélorue and the colour accents are green instead of the blue used on the express cycle tracks.

A research team at Polytechnique Montréal was hired to record videos and conduct user surveys before and after the implementation of the enhanced markings to evaluate their effectiveness. The results will be delivered to the City by early spring 2024, well in time to be integrated into the final presentation for the conference in September.

The presentation will include:

• a summary of current regulations and guidelines for vélorues in Quebec
• a brief history of vélorues in Montreal
• an overview of the pilot project, including a description of the implementation context, the design of the enhanced markings, and the public engagement strategy
• a summary of the method and the results of the before-and-after study
• a discussion of the lessons learned from the project and, if conclusive, any modifications to the City’s guidelines for vélorues as a result.