The province of Quebec is opening the longest network of bicycle paths in North America with the ribbon-cutting of La Route Verte this month.
Under development since 1995, the Green Route stretches from one end of the French-speaking province to the other. It encompasses 2,695 miles of bike lanes, trails, abandoned railway right-of-ways and secondary roads that touch 320 towns and cities.
Bicycle tourists can take short tours from base cities, or do the entire route from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region in the west to the spectacular Gaspe Peninsula in the east. The route brushes the US for access from New York, Vermont and Maine.
The network
Nearly 1,000 miles of the route comprises various off-road bike paths. The remainder is on paved shoulders or roads with very low traffic. The entire route it marked, and maps give directions to nearby bike shops, hostels, and other amenties targeted to people on bike tours.
Velo Quebec came up with the idea of a provice-wide bike network in the early 1990s. The Quebec ministry of transportation signed on a few years later, and has spent $88.5 million on the route that's been developed by Velo Quebec.
Perhaps to justify those expenditures, the Quebec tourism board did a study that estimated users would spend about $134 million along the route this year, supporting 2,800 jobs.
The opening
The official unveiling of the route takes place on August 10 at 20 locations throughout the province. The biggest celebration is at Domaine de Maizerets in Québec City, where 2,000 cyclists in this year's Grand Tour and a smaller group that has cycled La Route Verte this summer will meet for a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m.
Beginning Sunday, a group of bikeway development experts from around the world will ride and evaluate parts of the trail in advance of the Aug. 10 grand opening.
Jim Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling Association, is a member of that evaluation tour. His bicycle nonprofit group is currently working with the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials to create a national interstate bicycle route system in the US. The first phase of that a project, an inventory of bike routes, is available at the Adventure Cycling website.
To read more about La Route Verte, check out the Newsday travel story “Through Quebec on Two Wheels.”
Recent Comments