Montreal by Bixi

A lovely pedestrian-only street around the
corner from my lodgings

June 26 & 27, 2016

The city of Dayton has a new public bicycle system, which I've never used because I have my own bike to use.  My recent and brief jaunt to French Canada has lent the perfect opportunity to utilize Montreal's Bixi bikes.  

Conveniently, my first night in town was a summer city-wide promotional free day for the Bixi. The concert I had lined up for Sunday night was several kilometers (see -- metric system... Gotta work on my French, too) from the hostel at which I was staying, so this was a perfect way to arrive in style and on time. 

Coming across the border into eastern Ontario, the French was all over the signage, but second to the English.  I thought, well good, once in Quebec the English will remain present, but second to French.  Incorrect.  No English. All the signage is in French.  As you could imagine though, navigation wasn't too difficult even with the phone off to save on data roaming charges.  Everything is all numbers and symbols when it comes to road signs -- simple, along with some old fashion orienteering skills, that is.  A note on interpersonal communication, apparently everyone is multilingual up here and they seemed to be able to switch to English quite naturally. I would be working on my own French more if I was going to stay any longer. Preferential treatment to the francophones? Mayhaps. 

Settled into my hostel dorm room and motorbike safely parked underground, I took to the streets for a quick bite before the show.  What? Classic poutine and a beer for 10$? I'm in. 

Now, in front of this Bixi kiosk, I was stretching my high school French to understand the series of prompts.  Having never gone through one of these bike share deals back home, I felt it necessary to actually figure out what each screen was saying.  Alas, not too difficult, just put the card in, tap oui, oui, un jour(not annular)... And boom, I got a bike to ride!

Curb-delineated bike lanes -- Brilliant!

Rambling up Boulevard de St Lawrence in normal street traffic, I did not initially take advantage or know of the dedicated and curb-separated bike lanes that are common throughout the city.  That was fine, drivers seemed cognizant and were courteous, though the road surface condition was quite varied - read: choppy, bumpy, and no shortage of man hole covers and storm grates even in the bike lanes. Hey, just like back home in Dayton.

I saw approximately zero cyclists that Saturday night with a helmet on, nor was one atop my noggin. It's funny how social norms can make one's own norms go out the window. 

With some more killer rock-folk-psyche jams now part of my being (Steve Gunn, in case you're interested in the act that gave me the perfect excuse to leave the country), I stepped out onto St. Laurent, and kept stepping. Being that it was after midnight, the Bixi was no longer free, and I felt more like moseying home on foot besides. The author was solicited for change more than once, and offered a bj more than once -- see the local flavor you might miss when zooming by on two wheels!

Day two in "Mount Royal" was for unstructured sightseeing and culture enjoyment and, once again, Bixi was just my ticket. With the app on my phone, finding them was simple; it even told me how many bikes were available at a given station. I drew up to the nearest kiosk and observed on the initial screen the "languages" option. I tapped that, and then tapped English. 

Following recommendation from a new acquaintance back home, I rambled over to St-Viateur on Mount Royal East for one of the best bagels of my life.  Then onto an exceptional botanical gardens at the grounds of the '76 Olympics (the line for the biodome was waay too long), then back to the ol' St. Laurent drag to Schwartz's Deli for a mighty corned meat sandwich. 

The deal with Bixi and Dayton's Link bikes is that you have to have them back within 30 minutes, or you start getting charged extra. Perfect -- all of my rides were between 5 and 25 minutes. Another nice thing was being able to drop a bike here and then pick up another bike there.  A couple times I had walked a fair distance at my stop. No need to walk all the way back to my would-be chained up bike -- just grab the nearest Bixi!

One lesson learned about this system is to pay attention to the number of bikes the app says is at a station before heading right to it.  At one point, I chose the nearest Bixi station to me which apparently had two bikes.  The app didn't say that both of the bikes had flat tires.  I would now be heading to stations with a greater selection of rides.

That evening I took myself to Old Montreal, a very lovely part of town that I highly recommend.  The bike was parked because this is definitely more of a walking part of town -- narrow streets, and narrow sidewalks, too!  In fact, there was a punk-lookin' band with their gear heading to a show.  With barely enough room for two people to pass, I had to step into the street to get by.  Not a problem, and I asked them where they are playing.  They referred me to an art film theater and gallery know as the Phi.  After some moseying and a delicious dinner, I sat in on an intriguing documentary about the Los Angeles backyard punk scene, to be followed by a real live LA punk show.  Alas, it was getting late, my day pass to the Bixi was about to expire, and punk rock often doesn't sound very good to my ears.

This was a great little trip and I recommend Montreal by Bixi, Montreal any way you roll, or making use of these handy bicycle systems in a city near you!