Wednesday 21 April 2010

Rushing the Season: Bixis are Back, But the Leaves Aren't Yet

The Bixis are out--Montreal's bike rental system started functioning this week, and yesteday I saw at least 20 Bixists whooshing around. The bikes haven't been delivered to all the stations, but in this neighborhood at least some are in place.

It was not all that warm this morning--about 8 C or in the low 50s F--but the letter carrier in the picture obviously is expecting warmer temperatures byy the end of the day. The leaves aren't on the trees yet either, but that isn't going to stop people, it seems.

The up side of climate change?

2 comments:

lagatta à montréal said...

I've seen quite a few of them starting the first day. Our station at the Market (corner Henri-Julien and Jean-Talon) has more than doubled in size from last year. There is another station at the other angle, at the corner of Mozart and Casgrain, and many others nearby.

Oh, it doesn't have to be warm to cycle - the main enemy is ice and snow. I started early in March and would have started late in February if I hadn't been taking a work trip to Amsterdam, as there was really no snow and ice on the roads any more. Over there lots of cyclists, though it was very chilly this year, some degrees below 0c when people are leaving for work. I don't really bother with a bicycle over there as everything I really need to get to is scarcely more than a fifteen or twenty-minute walk from where I stay.

The leaves on smaller trees and bushes are out, but it depends on sun exposure and warm and cool spots.

Is that St-Viateur or Bernard in Mile-End? I see one of those huge, tall STOP signs they've put in there for traffic calming (hope they work).

Also hope you are seeing well again after the eye-exam drops.

Mary Soderstrom said...

Hi Maria

The picture is at St. Viateur and Parc, but there Bixis outside the Croissanterie and in quite a few neighborhood places. Must ask Lukas if there are any in Cote des neiges: he complained last year that there weren't any near where he lives (Edouard Montpetit and Westbury.)

As for the eyes: they were fine by the end of the day, although at the beginning of my Portuguese class at 4 p.m. I still was having trouble reading. The inconvenience was worth the good news that my eyes are okay for a while, though.

Enjoy the lovely weather.

Mary