The Robert Silverman Bike Highway

Robert Silverman, one of Montréal’s most visible and colourful cycling activists who died in 2022, was honoured today with the Piste Robert-Silverman, a section of the city’s famous Réseau express vélo (REV) on rue Saint-Denis. This is a fitting tribute for Silverman, who spent decades of his life bringing the city’s need for cycling infrastructure–and safety for cyclists–to the attention of the public and elected officials. I had the pleasure of interviewing him more than a decade ago, while researching Le Monde à bicyclette, the cycling advocacy group he co-founded in 1976. Montréal has since become a cycling paradise, by North American standards, but many of the issues of safety and mobility that Silverman and Le Monde à bicyclette raised in the 1970s are still relevant today. For more on Le Mab check out the project Encore du monde à bicyclette or my 2016 article here.