The debates on urban mobility remain extremely topical. As evidenced by the recent derailment of the Quebec City tramway project, which has just reached a new peak in its long odyssey dotted with delays. There is reason to worry. The implementation of structuring transportation networks is a crying necessity across Quebec to help its citizens break away from their dependence on the automobile. In this vast, low-density territory, some people must travel long distances even to accomplish the most mundane tasks, such as going to the grocery store.
This brings me back to Carlos Moreno’s concept of the “quarter-hour city”, which aims to place humans and their well-being at the center of city planning. His vision offers us an urban redevelopment where all citizens can reach their essential destinations — whether schools, workplaces, medical centers, shops or leisure areas — in just fifteen minutes of walking or bicycle.
It is a concept of urbanity which seeks not only to free us from our dependence on the automobile, but also to enrich our quality of life and to strengthen our social and economic ties within our communities, from now on more compact and more connected.
In this era of extremely polarized opinions, some see this concept as a devious plot orchestrated by a so-called “world government” to confine people to ghettos. Basically, this government would seek to undermine everyone’s individual freedoms by dictating a new way of life. This misinterpretation even led to death threats being made against Moreno and his family. It is striking, to say the least, that an idea aimed at enriching urban life by bringing essential services closer to its inhabitants can be interpreted as an obstacle to their individual freedoms.
Undaunted, conspiracy theorists tend to link everything to nebulous notions like “world government” or what they pejoratively call the “wokism” movement. For example, in the mind of Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, standing against a highway tunnel project is seen as “wokism.” For these power-hungry populists, everything is permitted to discredit this type of project, including making the misleading conflation between the promotion of sustainable transport and the principle of awakening to social and racial inequalities.
This makes me think of the surreal press conference of his Quebec alter ego, Éric Duhaime, who denounced the so-called noise from the Nantes tramway. Ironically, while traveling to attend a conference, I found myself in this same city. When I shared the video of this press conference with friends from Nantes, the cascade of untruths, brandished solely in the hope of scoring electoral points and undermining an essential public transport project, caused astonishment .
There is no question of linking the postponement of the Quebec tramway project to these populist ramblings, quite the contrary. However, this situation reveals a deeper and well-rooted malaise in our society where the car is too often perceived as a symbol of freedom and personal success, or even an extension of identity in public space.
While I was still mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, I remember a conversation with members of a business association who opposed the creation of cycling infrastructure, arguing that cyclists, considered less fortunate , would spend less than motorists. For them, the idea that an individual could choose to travel by bike out of pure conviction, when they could easily afford a car, was inconceivable.
Our perception of public transport lies precisely in this prejudice: for some, they are the refuge of the less fortunate. As I have pointed out in the past, and as my colleague Jean-François Nadeau recently reiterated, we tend to wrongly consider public transport as a financial burden, while road infrastructure intended for cars is seen as an investment.
Although Moreno’s idea of the “quarter-hour city” is a source of inspiration for certain cities, we must recognize that it does not easily lend itself to the reality of most Quebec cities. On the other hand, it is unfair to blame those who, morning and evening, find themselves stuck in their cars for creating traffic congestion. To improve their quality of life and reduce their expenses, it will be essential to invest massively in public transportation options worthy of rivaling the comfort of sport utility vehicle seats.
Currently, the debate is rather crystallizing around the consolidation of assets and the reduction of deficits of transport companies, an approach which distances us from the ambition of development focused on sustainable and structuring mobility. We will have to review our ambitions in this area if we want to allow the National Capital to finally benefit from a transport system commensurate with what all North American cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants already have.
CEO of the Institute of Resilience and Urban Innovation, professor and associate researcher, François William Croteau was mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.