This comment constitutes neither support nor opposition to the controversial third link project east of Lévis. Instead, he suggests exercising great caution with regard to the serious problems that this type of development creates. Since these issues are already well understood, we would be at the stage of applying measures to control the undesirable effects.
A structuring road segment
The third link completes the first ring road of the Communauté métropolitaine de Québec (CMQ). A ring road bypasses denser inner urban areas. This registers Lévis as a close suburb of Quebec, which induces a coordinated management of these two municipalities.
Locally, this ring road makes it possible to revitalize the Lévis-Est sector, which is less developed since it is located away from the sprawl generated by the bridges. On a regional scale, the third link appears as the eastern counterpart of the Pierre-Laporte bridge. However, since its commissioning in 1971, the latter has been a powerful catalyst for urban sprawl towards the South Shore.
Without preventive measures, the third link will intensify urban sprawl towards Beaumont, Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse and the riverside. It opens the door wide to the south and south-east region, threatening an important sector of agricultural activities which, to this day, remains sheltered from urban invasion.
Urban sprawl refers to a growth dynamic of an urban area beyond the urban/rural discontinuity, this growth materializing in the form of non-agglomerated urbanized plots, dispersed in the peripheral space. Widespread access to the automobile and the efficiency of the road network are closely associated with it.
These parcels are developing rapidly and simultaneously along the main arteries joining the city center as well as on the edge of rural municipalities. All recent models of urban development illustrate the interaction between transport networks, the distribution of urban functions and urban sprawl.
The urban surge in rural areas
To the south of the CMQ, the vast agricultural space will become “fertile ground” for urban sprawl! However, it seems that the Agricultural Territory Protection Commission is struggling to protect this area from the urban surge!
The destructuring of land and agricultural activities begins with land speculation. Due to the high price paid by the speculator, agricultural land that has become inaccessible for profitable farming is abandoned. Thus, on the outskirts, speculation subtracts parcels of arable land, fragments the agricultural space and the rural landscape.
Then, new developments appear, grow and radically transform the rural landscape. This deployment is accompanied by an imposing road network ensuring a rapid transition from the outskirts/city-centre. Rapidly, agricultural activity declines and eventually disappears.
For rural municipalities, sprawl improves their tax revenues by offering larger residential properties at a lower cost. However, for a resident working in the central city, owning a car is essential. These neo-rurals have a different rhythm, way of life and standard of living from the local population. The expected bucolic universe quickly collides with the realities of agricultural activity. Odors, dust and agricultural machinery generate tensions between the two populations.
All these elements encourage farmers to do something other than agriculture… or to do it elsewhere! For Lévis and the CMQ, beyond threatened local agriculture, it is a rural landscape that is fading under “development”.
Congestion
The periphery is the automotive world. Public transport is less popular and more expensive there due to the distribution of urban functions and low residential density. The service offer is weaker and concentrated around peak hours. City-centre/periphery journeys are mostly made by solo car!
The decision to settle on the outskirts is based in particular on the speed of reaching the city centre. But population growth contributes to congesting the road network. When the works are carried out, fluidity energizes urban sprawl, until the next congestion… This cyclical congestion requires strong recurring public investments in the road network, investments sometimes perceived as subsidies for urban sprawl.
The latest version of the third link, with two lanes in each direction rather than three, is very likely to congest the roads very quickly. And to add a lane in a tunnel…
The automotive wave
The central city is a living environment for residents who choose to live there. Due to its high residential density and the large distribution of services, the city-centre is the world of public transport and alternative modes of travel. The offer is therefore greater and more affordable. Taxis, buses, car-sharing, cycling and walking are all substitutes for the private automobile, the possession of which is not a necessity.
To meet regional demand, vast parking spaces, urban boulevards, highways and road interchanges are being developed. During rush hour, cars accumulate, stagnate at traffic lights. Moving around becomes dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. The urban climate overheats, noise becomes pervasive, and air quality deteriorates.
The degradation of the urban environment becomes an incentive for the population to settle on the outskirts, even if it means driving on weekday mornings and evenings, which accelerates the deterioration of the urban space.
Solutions
There are enough specialists in these matters to properly advise managers. Such reflection requires recognition of the very existence of these problems by all managers, which does not currently seem to be the case.
These are committees bringing together different specialists who would propose a set of measures allowing an adequate management of these problems. By opposing traditional ways of seeing and doing, these measures would constitute a major political challenge for land managers.
The completion of the third link should be conditional on the implementation of these measures. These exist, and nothing prevents us from proposing new ones, better adapted to the reality of the Quebec region. This exercise would be a great opportunity to do things differently, to do things better!