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Faux bike path In spite of having only 45 demonstrators present for the Critical Mass bicycle ride of two weeks ago, cycling activists in Montreal say reports of their movement's death ["The sound of one hand clapping," Sept. 11 Mirror] are greatly exaggerated. To prove their point, they staged yet another protest earlier on Monday morning in the McGill ghetto: during the one-hour period when parking is prohibited on the south side of Milton, they took some yellow paint and a stencil of a bicycle and created an impromptu bike path from Park to University--a symbol of the lack of cycling access to the McGill campus.
According to cycling activist and McGill student Christine Lewis, activists kept painting even after police arrived on the scene and warned them to stop. They were eventually served with $135 tickets, but Lewis says there's little difference between their actions and kids drawing hopscotch boards on the street. "We used washable paint, and we understand that you can't be fined if you aren't using anything permanent." The four activists intend to beat the rap. Philip Preville
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