Meet the Montreal cyclist who moved his entire apartment using only a bike

On July 1, moving trucks and trailers are a common sight across the city, as hundreds of households move apartments and haul their belongings from one end of the island to the other.

But in Pointe-Saint-Charles, one avid cyclist has been experimenting with an alternative way to move.

Mathieu Murphy-Perron, a theatre maker, union advisor and cycling enthusiast, completed his entire move by bike, making 76 trips in total.

He calculates that between cycling to and from his new place, located about 1.5 kilometres from his old one, and making several trips to the ecocentre and big box stores, he covered 382 kilometres during the course of his move.

Murphy-Perron orchestrated the move over the course of one month. His busiest day was on June 24, where he carried 18 loads to his new home.

Assisted by his partner, Jaclyn Turner, and a friend who owns a bike trailer, the trio did 85 loads in total.

Murphy-Perron said that he was inspired to take on the project after seeing the work of Montreal moving company Myette, which carries out moves by bike.

"They are world renowned," he said. "As a member of the cycling community, I've seen their work and been very impressed by the mechanics of it all."

He contacted Myette, but learned they weren't offering services in June. 

"So at that point, my partner and I had a choice to make. We looked at the circumstances that we had in front of us. We had a whole month to move, it was a relatively short move," he said. "So we decided to go for it."

He rented a cargo bike from a local company and set to work.

Murphy-Perron said that overall, the move went smoothly and that managing the bulky items like a king size mattress and a couch was less trouble than expected.

"With the right equipment, it was fine," he said. "I've seen what you can do with a cargo bike or on a trailer. It's not any additional effort. It's no different from when I'm biking to work, except I'm getting a lot more stares and raised eyebrows and questions."

Along with help from a local gardening collective, Murphy-Perron also got a leg up from a business in the area.

"One of our local bike shops, when they found out what we were doing, they said 'Well, do you need an extra trailer for a day? We'll lend you out our internal trailer that we don't normally give to folks. But we're impressed with what you're trying to do.'"

Murphy-Perron said that while it's a bonus not to add to his carbon footprint by renting a truck, his main motivator was more locally minded.

"I get quite concerned with the amount of vehicular traffic, especially big trucks and SUVs, that we see in densely populated neighbourhoods," he said, adding that as a cyclist, he knows accidents involving heavy trucks tend to be more serious.

He said with kids playing on the sidewalks in his neighbourhood, he wanted to find a "friendlier way of moving."

He thought: "What can I do to have one less big truck in the neighbourhood?"

Though he said there are some things he would do differently if moving by bike again, Murphy-Perron said taking on this challenge reaped some unforseen benefits.

"Overall, there's been lots of beautiful moments. We've gotten to know so many of our neighbours through this, because people do genuinely stop and talk to you," he said. "I'm quite rooted in this community, and this experience made it all the more so."