It might be time to pinch those handbrakes and give some rational thought to this practice.
Some points:
1-Many studies indicate that bike paths make cycling more dangerous than riding without them.. Increased risk to cyclists caused by bike paths has been demonstrated in studies done in Sacremento, Palo Alto, Toronto,Ottawa Denmark, Berlin, Sweden, and Britain.
These are not only legit studies, many were commissioned under the assumption that the results would have shown the opposite (although other studies came with the opposite conclusions).
2-Bike paths are massively expensive. Not only do they cost millions to build but many bike paths cost parking revenues.
So let's say 500 street parking spots are removed for a bike path (as seen for example in the photo of Rachel St. above). If each metered spot brings in say $100 a day, a single bike path costs a city $50,000 a day in lost revenues (even in winter when they are barely even used). Now multiply those numbers dozens of times around town.
And of course wiping out parking spots makes it difficult for shopkeepers, as clients can't leave their car anywhere, so they just drive to malls, once again, that's another loss to main street.*
3-Bike paths are ageist. Old, handicapped, young, sick people and many others can't or won't ride bicycles. And almost nobody can or will ride in winter or the rain. That's a lot of people who cannot ride a bike. This huge social demographic travels in cars. As unfashionable as they might appear, cars and taxis are more democratic than bicycles.
Bike paths on busy streets often unnecessarily prevent people from stopping their cars, which makes it difficult for health-challenged or disabled people to disembark in some spots.
Cycling is a great pleasure and many bike paths, such as the one lining the Lachine Canal offer a great riding experience, but paths on commercial arteries clearly should have been reconsidered and that goes to the future ones that are slated for Bernard and St. Lawrence.**
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*(The city has attempted to insulate itself from the shock of store closings by pushing the commercial tax onto landlords, who in turn simply raise rents both commercial and residential, so people end up paying one way or another).
**Soon technology will make bike transit riding and bus riding obsolete anyway as inexpensive self-driven electric taxis will pick us up and drop us off without requiring any parking headaches.