An “exit route”
“The solutions are there. And neighborhood stakeholders are ready to act. There is really a need to take the next step, but unfortunately, this is not yet reflected sufficiently on the ground in relation to the urgency to act. We need a drastic change,” says Pascal Priori, of the Solon organization, which campaigns for the reduction of the role of cars in Montreal. Along with several others, his group is behind the guide Exit route, made public a few days ago, which aims to equip neighborhood stakeholders to reduce car space. Its premise is simple: the metropolis is in a state of “over-motorization” and must take significant measures, quickly, to reduce the number of vehicles in circulation, for environmental, security and even social reasons.
Subsidies, incentives
In the report, of which the Public Health Department and the City’s urban planning department are co-signatories, we address in particular the need to “subsidize the purchase or maintenance of bicycles”, or even “create programs to offer financial compensation to people who give up their parking sticker. Another avenue considered would be to “offer free passes or [au] discounts for new installations of public transit, car-sharing or bike-sharing stations.” It is also recommended to limit access to automobiles in “certain streets and alleys” and even to “close streets” to cars in front of schools, or even to reduce the number of excess spaces in private parking lots.
Possible to live without a car
“Yes, it is possible to live without a car in Montreal. There are people who are already doing it and others who aspire to do it. But we need stronger actions if we want to increase this number,” says the manager of collaborative approaches and behavioral change at the Regional Environmental Council (CRE-MTL), Rébecca Gelly-Cyr. She recalls that in 2018, according to data from the origin-destination (OD) survey, 30% of Montreal households already claimed to live without a car. The following year, a City survey revealed that 20% of people who own one or more vehicles are thinking of getting rid of them or, at least, reducing their number. “Now it is possible to go much further,” says M.me Gelly-Cyr.
The right measures, the right audiences
Pascal Priori believes that addressing the right audiences with the right measures would also change the situation. “If, for example, we had targeted subsidies to buy a new electric vehicle towards people who want to get rid of their vehicle, especially those who have lower incomes, I think that we would have achieved much greater objectives today. more interesting,” he illustrates. “Citizens want to act, but there is a limit to what we can ask of them in a context of housing crisis and inflation. People are ready, but we have to invest in social and community infrastructure, otherwise we will just burn out people,” continues Mr. Priori.
80 employers commit
This release comes at a time when nearly 80 large employers in Greater Montreal have just committed to putting in place incentive measures to encourage active and collective transportation and reduce individual parking space, by signing a “mobility pact sustainable” a few weeks ago already, on the sidelines of the Montreal Climate Summit, which was held at the beginning of May. Among the actions agreed to by the list of employers in this agreement, note among others the fact that “100% of the new premises are located less than 400 meters from high-frequency public transport, i.e. one passage every 10 minutes maximum” or a monthly allowance for people who walk or cycle to work.