In this era of excessive division, it has become difficult to hold a nuanced discourse without falling into excesses of language and extreme political commitments. The implementation of public policies suffers from our collective inability to reach a consensus. Clientelism has indeed infiltrated all spheres of society, pushing everyone to stand out by targeting increasingly specific segments of opinion.
The issue of sustainable mobility is a clear illustration of this. As soon as action is taken in its favour or a study is published on the subject, this issue is immediately perceived as opposition to another mode of transport or as the dogmatic fruit of a system run by a privileged urban elite. In short, we fall into caricature and debate becomes impossible.
The fundamental problem is not whether we walk, cycle, take public transit or press the accelerator pedal. Rather, it lies in land use planning that makes us captive to the car in almost all cities and regions of Quebec. Hence the importance of stopping blaming anyone in our collective efforts to change our habits.
We do not choose to walk or cycle because we cannot afford a car. We do it because, in some cases, it is more practical or faster. We also do it out of personal conviction or for health reasons. But in the vast majority of cases, a psychological limit prevents the use of walking, cycling and even public transport: a limit that is attached to the distance of the journey to be made and the degree of comfort.
1er Last May, I told you about a project that the City of Montreal abandoned because of unnecessary power struggles between the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM). The integrated mobility project, or “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS), has not been abandoned everywhere in Quebec. It will likely see the light of day first in the national capital. Capitale Mobilité, a limited partnership, has been given the mandate by the Réseau de transport de la capitale (RTC) to carry out this project in Quebec City and the Communauté métropolitaine de Québec (CMQ) within a few years.
The project aims to provide optimized access to mobility options through a single window that facilitates research, payment and use. It seeks to promote collective and sustainable mobility services while ensuring a complementary offer throughout the territory. An inclusive approach allows it to offer specific services to solo drivers in order to guide them towards efficient transport options. Finally, it encourages an open partnership between public and private stakeholders in order to better meet the needs of users.
This project, which will generate thousands of different journey plans, has a strong potential for creating massive mobility data. This data will help improve the offering of all providers, such as Communauto, àVélo, RTC and many others. It will also help to better identify gaps in the network and optimize the planning of investments in transport infrastructure. This data collection is fundamental to the viability and relevance of such a project.
This will not only transform and restructure mobility in Quebec City, but also inspire and influence our vision of mobility across the country. I can well imagine an interregional strategy being deployed to revitalize intercity transportation and reduce car use during family vacations from one region to another.
In my opinion, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the effect of adding hotel reservations to this single platform, with shared bike stations or Communauto spaces nearby. We could even improve regional bus services by combining them with other modes of transportation. In short, instead of opposing options, we are proposing complementarity.
Result: this could improve mobility throughout Quebec, as long as these measures are adapted to local realities. This would reduce the time spent on travel and intermobility, but also their costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and our dependence on the automobile. All of this would offer incredible economic development potential to service providers and future partners.
While we’re at it, why not ensure that Capitale Mobilité benefits from the improved payment platform solution that the ARTM is developing? Combining the two projects rather than developing them in parallel would allow the two organizations to combine their efforts to accelerate the transformation and reduce its costs.
This is not a small revolution that we are hoping for, but a complete paradigm shift in mobility planning. This would finally help us move beyond the sterile debates that prevent us from achieving our collective goals. By drawing inspiration from the best practices of other cities, through multilateral exchanges and missions in these same cities, the decision-makers of the national capital are showing the way for new Quebec leadership in sustainable mobility. Let’s hope that this can lead us to structuring sustainable mobility projects that will inspire even the most skeptical!