Criticized for having announced free street parking on summer weekends downtown, the administration of Valérie Plante has changed its tune. It now proposes to make access to the metro free in seven stations located near tourist attractions in the city center.
Last month, as she kicked off the cultural events of the summer, Valérie Plante announced that free on-street parking would be back downtown for the summer. “A short-sighted decision by the Montreal administration,” commented Marc-André Viau, director of government relations at Équiterre.
Thursday, the administration announced that it had changed its strategy and that it now preferred to encourage tourists and Montrealers to take public transport, which has suffered greatly from the pandemic. “After analysis and in consultation with downtown partners, the City of Montreal has revised its measure on free parking in order to opt for more structuring measures, consistent with its environmental values”, indicated the City in its communicated.
Weekends
She announced that access to the métro would be free on weekends from seven downtown stations, namely Saint-Laurent, Place-des-Arts, McGill, Peel, Champ-de-Mars, Place- d’Armes and Berri-UQAM. Free access will not apply when travelers access the metro at other stations in the network.
This measure, the cost of which is estimated at $2 million, will come into effect on Friday, June 24. As it is a public holiday, free admission will apply when the metro opens at 5:30 a.m. on National Day. For summer weekends that do not include statutory holidays, access will be free from Saturday morning until the métro closes on Sunday evening.
Marc-André Viau is of the opinion that the City made the right decision by giving up free parking. “The attractiveness of the city center does not depend on the cost of on-street parking, but on the pedestrian experience of a rue Sainte-Catherine, its newly redone public squares, as well as the cultural and commercial offer” , he believes.
To make the city center more attractive to tourists, the Mobility Squad intends to carry out a blitz campaign aimed at removing as many orange cones, signs and excess fences as possible from the urban landscape.
For its part, the Ville-Marie borough plans to invest an additional $1.7 million to improve cleanliness in the downtown area. This sum will make it possible to increase the number of garbage cans in the sector by more than 50%.