Montrealer Olivia Collette sold her car in 2016 and hasn't looked back.
Collette, a communications consultant living in central Montreal, said getting around using a bicycle, a car-sharing service or a transit pass has not only saved her money, it's often more enjoyable.
Van Oosteren, who grew up in the Netherlands before moving to France, said the rise of cycling in both countries was partially driven by high gas prices. In France, bicycles began to gain popularity in 2018, when a tax increase pushed the price of gas to nearly $3 a litre, he said. In Paris, meanwhile, that growth continued as the local government rapidly created temporary bike paths in 2020 to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Many of those paths have become permanent.
Around 2,000 cyclists a day, he said, use a recently constructed bike lane on St-Denis Street, a major artery in Montreal's urban core. "There's some days when it's 8,000, which is impressive." "We just don't have the same sort of network that makes people feel comfortable riding a bike," Shissler said.