There’s a saying that goes: « If you build it, they will come. » Turns out, whether you’re talking about a baseball diamond or a bike lane, this can be super true.

What is Saint Denis Street?

Saint Denis Street is a major north-south axis in the Canadian city of Montreal. In its tenure as a key commercial artery for over 200 years (yes, it’s older than the country it’s in!), the beloved street has seen its fair share of changes.

Credit: McCord Museum under CC0

Credit: FRED under CC BY-SA3.0

However, one if its most significant changes happened quite recently, and continues to make an impact to this day.

Before 2020, Saint Denis Street had 30% of its space dedicated to pedestrians and greenery, and 70% to motorized vehicles. Notably, even though it had no bike lanes, cyclists still made up 4% of the volume on that road (according to an in-house study we conducted for the city of Montreal).

Then, in 2020, something big happened. In an effort to reduce traffic and reinvigorate businesses on the street, Saint Denis Street’s space was transformed. The new space allocation was as follows: 54% dedicated to pedestrians and greenery, 31% to motorists, and 15% to cyclists.

Here is a before and after of the redesign:

Credit: Ville de Montreal

Breaking records, year after year

So, what happened after the Saint Denis Street transformation?

In the first year after the change, pedestrian traffic increased by 9% and bicycle traffic skyrocketed by 250%! On the commercial side, 37 new stores opened in 2021 and pedestrian volumes increased 65% between summer 2020 and summer 2021.

In the years following, we watched intently to see if bicycle volumes would slow down. But, like a world class cyclist, it never quit.

• In 2023, the intersection of Saint Denis Street and Des Carrières Street recorded 1.52 million bike passes. This was the busiest point on the Saint Denis bike network and a new annual record at the time. Sadly (or happily?), it was short-lived. In 2024, 1.67 million bike passes were recorded, a whopping increase of 10.3%.
• At the intersection at Saint-Denis and des Carrières, each month in 2024 broke the monthly record for the highest bike counts since the bike lane was created four years ago.
• November was the month with the largest gain compared to 2023. In 2024, 110,700 counts were recorded—26,000 more than in 2023, an increase of 31%.
• Fall retention rate, or the percentage of bike activity in October and November compared to peak summer months, rose in the past few years. In 2022, 58% of bike volumes on Saint Denis persisted into late fall. In 2024, that number rose to 66%. In other words, two thirds of the bike traffic seen in peak summer carry over into October and November.

What’s next for Saint Denis Street?

Although more and more people are riding their bikes on Saint Denis Street, there’s still work to be done on the business end. Today, Saint Denis Street’s vacancy rate sits at 14%, down from 24% in 2020. Though this is a sizeable improvement, many store owners agree that business still isn’t « booming » on the once abundant Saint Denis Street.

They mention high rent prices and competition from online businesses as hurdles to overcome. As well, they compare Saint Denis with other streets in Montreal like Mount Royal Avenue with vacancy rates as low as 5.6%.

Credit: Alain Rouiller under CC BY-SA3.0

That said, the future looks bright. Cyclists and pedestrians continue to increase, potentially generating more business. Similarly, the city continues to invest in the street’s revival. One example is the naming of a new CEO for the « Espace St-Denis », a complex with a theatre, restaurants, and an office tower.

Want to know more? Read our Saint Denis Street case study.

How do you allocate the space on a road for bikes, cars, and pedestrians? Learn about it in our new article.