In its vision of mobility for the next decade, the City of Lévis is banking on the widening of its main roads and the development of a still undetermined number of reserved lanes to “stop the hemorrhage of public transport towards the automobile. »
Faced with exponential population growth and increasingly irritating congestion for its population, the mayor of Lévis, Gilles Lehouillier, promises to tackle the transport issue head on in his territory.
Over the next 10 years, Lévis will have nothing to envy of Montreal in terms of orange cones on its roads. The construction sites promise to grow in the four corners of the city: at the mouth of the bridges, on the main axes which cross Lévis from north to south and from east to west, and on highway 20 promised to be upgraded to three lanes. each side.
Without discussing the bill associated with this work, the mayor promises that the City has submitted it to the “sieve of [sa] ability to pay. » Out of the question, he again emphasizes, to tax a taxpayer “at the end” more. »
The City presents its vision a few weeks before the expected submission of the CPDQ Infra proposal to provide Quebec and its region with a structuring network. Regardless of the result of the analysis, the work submitted by Lévis must be carried out, assures the mayor.
“Even if we decide to make a motorway link between the two banks, it will take several years,” explains Gilles Lehouillier. In the meantime, we must organize our mobility adequately — this is why public transportation is at the heart of our priorities. We want to stop the hemorrhage from public transport to automobiles. »
The administration is nevertheless awaiting the completion of its feasibility studies to determine the exact number of lanes reserved for buses that it intends to install along its main roads. For the moment, only the lanes already confirmed on certain sections of Boulevard Guillaume-Couture and Route des Rivières will definitely come out of the ground.
Lack of ambition, decries the opposition
The bus does indeed need love, concedes the opposition party Repensons Lévis. Around 85% of the population travels by car, even for distances of less than one kilometer. According to a study by Laval University carried out in 2021, less than one in two buses respected their schedule during the evening peak period.
The opposition blames the current administration for the automobile’s stranglehold on the population’s travel habits.
“In 10 years, the ambition to improve public transport has amounted to a meager 1% modal share. We went from 4% to 5% of people who use the bus to get around while other cities are much more ambitious, deplores the newly elected leader of the party, Serge Bonin. With the increase in population, the result is an absolute increase in the number of cars and a slowdown in traffic in many areas. »
Despite its stated ambition, the City of Lévis is waiting to have in hand the next version of the Origin Destination survey expected in 2025 before putting forward a figure on the transfer of modal share hoped for at the end of its projects.
In the eyes of the mayor of Lévis, the improvement in fluidity should certainly result in high ridership on the buses of the Société de transport de Lévis. “Our objective is to offer a service during peak hours every seven minutes, or even every five minutes,” recalls Gilles Lehouilllier. If you have not improved the traffic jams as we are doing here, you will not make your gains because your buses will always be late. »
“Mr. Lehouillier lacks ambition,” replies the second elected representative of Repensons Lévis, Alexandre Fallu. When he took office as mayor in 2013, he had the opportunity to deliver the LINEA structuring project totaling 17 km. [Aujourd’hui], he offers us a project of two small sections of 2.9 km on Guillaume-Couture Boulevard. »
Shared cycling in Lévis
Aside from the redevelopment of the interchange at the southern end of the bridges and the widening of its main roads, Lévis also wants to improve active transportation on its territory, by inaugurating, starting next year, ten àVélo stations on his territory.
This shared bicycle service, very popular in Quebec, must put 100 of them into circulation in Lévis. The location of the stations remains to be determined but Gilles Lehouillier sees certain essentials, notably at the head of the bridges and near the crossing between Quebec and Lévis.
The City also aims to create a 16 km cycle corridor accessible year-round between the Quebec Bridge and the Lévis CEGEP. Six kilometers have already been built and are in the process of being done: Lévis intends to complete the other 10 over the next decade, in addition to improving the envelope dedicated to the development of active transportation in the outskirts.