An additional bike lane has been added in Montreal’s Garment District, raising concerns about safety, traffic, parking and what some say is a lack of consultation. Prosper Azoulay says his business, Printex Canada, hasn’t been the same since new bike lanes appeared outside his print shop. Delivery trucks struggle to find parking. Customers are taking their business elsewhere. And he worries daily about an accident happening right outside his door. “The big 40 foot truck coming here.. he has to step on the bike path.. It’s very dangerous- he can hit the bike right away if someone passes by,” Azoulay said. He points to a damaged post outside as evidence. The lane runs north-south along sections of Parc Avenue, Chabanel, Port-Royal, Meilleur and Tolhurst streets. It opened earlier this year, cutting through an area home to over 2,000 businesses. The Ahuntsic-Cartierville merchant association says they were left in the dark. “No consultation, no consideration, a minimum of communication- barely,” said SDC District Central president Gabriel Tupula. A new survey among 170 businesses in the area, commissioned by the association, shows 90 per cent of business owners say they weren’t properly consulted. More than 60 per cent say sales dropped, and most say it’s now harder for employees and customers to access their buildings. “There’s a significant ripple effect on everybody because now the main roads are being jammed.. so people are using the residential roads,” Tupula said. CTV News asked the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough for a reaction but didn’t get a response in time for broadcast. Still, some say bike lanes are part of a bigger solution, not the problem. “You’re better off biking around - it’s way easier,” said cyclist Kevin Fouillet. Fouillet works along St-Denis Street and bikes to the office every day. He’s not alone — the St-Denis bike path sees over a million rides each year. But Azoulay says his reality looks different. “It’s an industrial place… Every day, you don’t see any bike going on.” He says business is down, and after 10 years there, he may have to move his shop. “There is no use to pay a high rent for the visibility that we have if we can’t have any parking and are losing business,” he said. Merchants say they aren’t against bike paths — they just wanted to be consulted.
