What Biking in the Winter is Really Like

I hate how drivers always complain about cyclists not using their own lanes while simultaneously treating their lanes as parking spots and snow dumps and then blaming them for not having anywhere safe to cycle. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. If you want cyclists to not get in your way, how about to not treating them like 2nd class citizens for a change? Cycling is real transit too whether you like it or not.

Winter cycling, with sliding cars and snow covered road markings, is an even bigger reason to have bike paths separated from the car lane by curbs and a gap.

I work for snow removal in the plateau at night and I can tell you that this was a very rare case. Our first day usually consists of a light snowfall or a bit of freezing rain. This gives us time to train the new drivers to properly clean the streets, bike lanes, and sidewalks. This year we had a bunch of newbies go straight into clearing 35cm of snow. This caused many problems. Since many that work in snow removal are from the south shore, they didn’t understand the importance of walking and cycling in plateau. The street cleaner dumped way to much snow near the bike lanes, making them very hard to clear with the small machine, and many sidewalk cleaners didn’t know to at least past 2-3 times on the bike lane to clear it wider. So all this to say, the removal will only get better

At 14:12, I noticed the truck driver creep out to look for oncoming traffic, then spot the cyclist and pedestrian, prompting them to reverse. This care for other road users is lacking in my city, Ottawa. Drivers here would sit there, expecting you to go around then claim you're entitled for asking them to move. I noticed this when visiting Montreal, but drivers are so much more aware of people outside of cars.

Surprisingly the hard part isn't the cold, it's dealing with the warmth after about 10 mins of cycling. Multi-layering is essential! Thank you for this video

I used to love snowfall. It was beautiful and made everything much more casual. Then I got a car and I realized this is what all the groaning was about. Cars are just not good with snow. The main reason many people hate winter is because take a lot more effort in the winter. They don't always drive well, you need to spend extra on winter tires, undercoats, and maintenance, and you have to shovel shovel shovel.

I'm from Central Europe. Today, finally after 10 days, I was able to comute by bike again. 10 days ago about 50cm of snow fell and I had to wait for it to melt. Our climate is milder than Montreal, but nobody clears the bike paths.

4:10 - Not saying anyone is obligated to do this, but I would have offered to help the guy shoveling snow off of his car and onto the bike lane to perhaps make him more likely to empathize with bikers. Sometimes you have to do a good deed for your "enemy" to make them realize you're not their enemy.

I was visiting Montreal during this storm and watching to snow removal process was amazing. I had such a good time there, I can't wait to return.

What I don't understand is that people won't blink if you go skiing or sledding or snowboarding, and some people will even drive to go to a hill to do those things. But the second you do something similar (biking) as a way to get around instead of just for funsies, people suddenly look at you like you've lost your damn mind.

I’ve honestly been shocked at how comfortable winter cycling can be. For me, temps get down to about 40F with heavy wind gusts. It all comes down to getting gear that keeps the wind off of you. So a windproof jacket, bar mitts, and a bacalava often do the trick! Sure, the first 0.5 miles might be cold but after that my body has heated up my layers and I feel great! Not sure what gear I would have to add to do weather like what you have but I’m confident that it’s very doable :-)

Thank you for this video! This will help us advocate for better cycling infrastructure in Ottawa. It's great that Montréal can show the path forward for better urbanism in Canadian cities.

I am so impressed with Montreal's snow removal. Thank you for sharing the reality in an authentic way. Let's see how things go in Toronto this winter.

Montreal: hands down the best city in Canada!

This is the first winter Bixi is available all year around and I am finding it working well enough (ignoring the need to better plan journeys due to reduced docks). I also mention this, since I noticed a surprising number of Bixis in the video, including the one rode by the presenter. Since the previous winter I have started cycling, but nowhere to the degree I do in the summer. The main motivation is that some journeys are just faster on a bicycle than public transport.

Been doing it for long time. With studded tires it's pretty good if the bike paths are plowed.

One of the things I appreciate about biking in Edmonton is how our lighter, dry snow allows winter biking to be less slushy that in other canadian cities (van, mont, tor). Sometimes we get ice due to our freeze/sun/thaw cycles, but studded tires solve that. The thicker, heavy, wet snow in a city like montreal seems much more difficult to navigate. Which I think should give Edmontonians a lot of hope, that if montreal can be a bike city, so can we! We're flat, equally cold, get less snow, have less wet snow, more sun, quickly expanding bike network, etc.

I don't have as much experience in Minneapolis yet, but getting around by bike in Madison, WI was totally doable through winter, even in some of the coldest temperatures and most challenging road conditions, like wet snow over ice. I mostly did it on an old, skinny-wheeled, steel road/commuter bike. I'm not saying I'd want my grandma to attempt that, but with wider snow tires, it's something most people could get used to. I recently biked around 8 miles away to party, almost entirely on grade-separated bikeway on an old rail corridor, one of the lowest-stress routes you could find. People were shocked that I came by bike in temps slightly below freezing and light snow on my wide-tired cargo e-bike, and some almost begged me to take an Uber instead out of concern for my safety despite it being one of the safest routes you could find in a North American city in any season.

I think I'd rather bike in snow than rain. Also, crazy how much snow Montreal has had. I haven't even shoveled in Toronto yet.

As a lifelong carbon centric car guy I still recognize commuting and ordinary travel isn't a single vehicle proposition and it shouldn't be. Just as automobile travel constantly evolves to become safer, so do other modes of transportation. I've watched you for over a year now. The depth and consideration you grant the entire picture of human movement over distances greater than foot travel (could get us in our constrained amounts of time) is more than commendable. I live northwest of the twin cities, so you can say I've shaken hands with thirty below more than a few times. I know we have at least one snowblower type street plow here. We should have more. The system simply works. I believe this is the first step toward safer roads for cars, bikers and pedestrians. Travel usually follows the order of most efficient use of time, then degree of safety. The second lagging behind the first, sometimes on the order of decades. Everything you've shared needs a broader audience. (I do my part but those who know me are confused by my view since they also know me as a die-hard traditional, um, preservationist.) The only thing I can think of which might improve inclement weather riding would be if cities employed some kind of awning system over bike paths. I have no idea how this could get public support traction, but hey, the idea is out there now, right? Harvey