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It cost $5.6 million and took more than two years to build, but a new lane on St-Laurent Blvd. to accommodate roughly 2,000 cyclists in an area heavily used by cars has received a failing grade from cycling advocates.

“It’s bad,” said Zvi Leve, a spokesperson for the Montreal Bike Coalition, of the path that was built at the end of the year where Mile End meets Rosemont, and still does not have any lane markings.

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“It takes people who don’t understand bicycles to design something like that,” said Marianne Giguère, the Projet Montréal spokesperson for cycling issues. “It makes no sense.”

The path gives lots of room to cyclists and pedestrians, dedicating half the road of an underpass for a bike path and sidewalk. It is supposed to be part of a new cycling network which will eventually run along train tracks in the area, and through the heart of the city.

Cyclists say the path, which runs under Rosemont Blvd., and through an underpass, is dangerous because it forces cyclists heading north to make a wide turn around a sidewalk that juts into the road on the south side, before forcing them to make an L-shaped turn to get onto the path. The path itself is also quite short, ending a block later at Bellechasse St., with no obvious path for cyclists to continue straight along St-Laurent.