They say you can’t build a cycling city unless you’re as flat as the Netherlands. But how true is that? In this video, I want to look at hills: how big of a barrier they are and how people and cities adapt. This video has two parts: a case study of how people handle a major bike route on a hill in Montreal, then a look at a secret second city that’s even hillier and has a unique approach to dealing with it that I haven’t seen anywhere else yet.

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References: Montreal bike counter data from Eco-Counter: https://villedemontreal-sum.eco-counter.com Montreal bike map 1990: https://www.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/1lnmojr/i_found_a_1990_map_of_bike_paths_in_montreal/ Montreal metro bike policy: https://www.stm.info/en/info/advice/bicycles/bicycles-are-welcome Halifax bike share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHaNDG51fds Quebec City bike share financial document suggesting $2 million a year: https://www.rtcquebec.ca/medias/communiques/capitale-mobilite-publie-ses-etats-financiers Quebec City 1.3 million rides in 2024: https://www.journaldequebec.com/2025/04/08/rtc-gros-deploiement-et-saison-prolongee-pour-avelo Vancouver bike share ridership: https://ourcommunitybikes.org/2024/12/29/the-future-of-vancouvers-public-bike-share-ocb-talks-to-mobi-by-rogers/ Philadelphia bike share ridership: https://bicyclecoalition.org/bcgp-releases-the-fall-2024-i-bike-phl-report/ & https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/81efadf1ecad43cc89a98fd18c75afd4 Quebec City bike share goals of 3,300 bikes: https://qcna.qc.ca/3300-bikes-by-2028-city-rolls-out-huge-avelo-program-expansion/