A first quadrangle of Old Montreal will be reserved for pedestrians starting in the summer of 2024, Mayor Valérie Plante said on Tuesday, as part of the Montreal Climate Summit being held in the Old Port. This announcement took the Old Montreal Commercial Development Corporation (SDC) by surprise, which was unaware of the existence of this project.
Last year, during the first edition of the Climate Summit, Montreal announced objectives for the decarbonization of the city’s building stock. This year, the City will focus on transportation, which accounted for 43% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Quebec in 2020. In the Montreal region, transportation-related GHG emissions increased by 18% between 1990 and 2019, according to a recent report published by the City of Montreal.
Among the measures that the City will put in place to decarbonize transportation by 2040, Mayor Plante announced her administration’s intention to transform Old Montreal into a “kingdom of pedestrians”. “We want to make it more user-friendly and protect it more like other cities have done,” she said during her speech. The mayor cited the case of Vienna, Brussels and Montpellier which have pedestrianized part of their historic district.
Unanswered questions
For the moment however, the administration is not able to give details on the first quadrangle to be pedestrianized nor on the timetable targeted for the project on the whole of the historic district. Sophie Mauzerolle, responsible for transport and mobility on the executive committee, points out that the condition for the success of such a project is based on the support of residents and merchants and that a discussion has already been initiated on this subject thanks to a consultation table created recently.
“We announce our colors to give predictability to citizens, the tourism industry and economic partners,” explained Ms.me Mauzerolle.
If she could not specify the first quadrangle targeted, Ms. Mauzerolle indicated that the pedestrianization would extend over four seasons. However, she admitted that the issue of delivery to businesses and restaurants would be an issue. “It will be an aircraft that will be built in flight with our partners. »
Traders kept in the dark
One of the partners in question, the SDC Vieux-Montréal, had not heard of the project. “The SDC Vieux-Montréal learned today, at the same time as the public and the media, of the existence of a pedestrianization project starting in the summer of 2024. No transmission of information, no work meeting or consultation took place prior to this announcement,” the association said in a statement.
The SDC declined to comment further before discussing the project with the City.
For its part, the Association of Residents of Old Montreal (ARVM) ensures that the subject was discussed during the first meeting of the consultation table set up by the City. “It was presented, not as pedestrianization, but as a priority given to pedestrians. The nuance is important”, underlines Christine Caron, president of the ARVM. “It all depends on how it’s done. There is a way to give priority to pedestrians without banning all automobile traffic. This is done elsewhere in the world, in Europe in particular. There is a way to give access to residents and merchants. We are eager to see what is proposed and to discuss it. »
According to the information she has received, the first sector targeted by pedestrianization would be the administrative zone of Old Montreal, where the city hall and the courthouse are located.
“You really have to discuss it before making a judgment,” continues Ms.me Caron who points out, however, that Old Montreal is grappling with congestion issues, particularly on rue de la Commune and rue Berri. The ARVM also carried out a survey of residents of Old Montreal and, according to Ms.me Caron, a majority of respondents were in favor of pedestrianizing tourist streets. “Of course we are interested in less traffic in the neighborhood,” she said.
For its part, the opposition considers that the administration is showing improvisation in this file. “Unfortunately, the Plante administration does not learn from its mistakes and arrives with an announcement on the corner of a table without even specifying which quadrilateral will be pedestrianized,” commented the leader of Ensemble Montreal, Aref Salem. “Let’s take the example of Europe where pedestrian streets are announced in good and due form on a few streets with targeted hours. »
Boulevard Henri Bourassa
Montreal also intends to make Boulevard Henri-Bourassa a “sustainable mobility corridor” with a rapid bus service (SRB) and an express bicycle network (REV), between the borough of Saint-Laurent and that of Rivière-des- Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles. Currently, this artery has eight lanes of automobile traffic in some places. The new developments will be carried out gradually in sections. Work will begin in Saint-Laurent this year.
The chairman of the board of directors of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), Éric Alan Caldwell, assured that the project would not have the magnitude of the construction site of the BRT Pie-IX, which took 13 years to complete and required the repair of all the infrastructures. In addition, the buses will run along the edge and not in the center of the lanes as is the case on boulevard Pie-IX. “It won’t be a big project like the SRB Pie-IX where you close everything for three years and where you inaugurate an SRB over the entire length,” explained Mr. Caldwell.
The elected official believes that the STM will be able to carry out the developments on the entire boulevard within three years.
The City also aims to transform freight transport into a zero-emission activity. In this regard, the Mayor indicated that the City would adopt a carbon-free delivery strategy by developing delivery services like the Colibri project, but on a larger scale.